Life Is Like A Lyric
by XrhiaX
Summary: With America as it was crumbling around them, the gaang must come to terms with their new abilities in time to save the world. Love, Despair, Awkwardness, War, Rebellion. LILA Season 3. Because you're worth it. ZxK, TxA, SxS. Chapter 13 finally up!
1. You Can Call It Another Lonely Day

Chaos.

If there was one word for what was happening, Zuko would use 'chaos'. Everything was a haze after the explosion, but after that there'd been a few moments clear enough that he was able to think back to them. One of them he recalled to be the school being evacuated - a police officer putting a hand on his back and guiding him through the dust clouds toward a huge crowd outside the school.

His mother had been there, with his uncle, and both had thrown their arms around him and Azula, crying in relief. Zuko didn't understand why he was alive; the neurotoxin was supposed to have killed him, and the rest of the state. But there he'd been, hugging his mother, and uncle, and sister.

Then he remembered Azula collapsing in her mother's arms, and he remembered reaching out to help her, and then he remembered seeing the sky. And then darkness; a deep, dreamless sleep enveloped him in a burning embrace that he was unable to escape. His chest heaved as he slept, and his lungs burnt, and he was so hot that sweat rolled off his skin.

He woke up and threw away whatever it was that was draped on him, long before he opened his eyes. He was too hot. This wasn't natural; how hot he was. He was going to burn up if he didn't cool off soon. But he was too weak to get up from where he was lying down. Zuko's eyes fluttered open and he saw the squared, paneled ceiling of a hospital room. Memories whizzed past him; his eye being wrapped after his scar's infliction.

"Mmngh," he heard himself whimpering, squeezing his eyes shut and rolling on his side in the hospital bed, his ebony hair stuck to his forehead. His movement pulled at the IV drip in his arm, but it stayed secure and he was able to manage it. He needed a drink; a cold shower, an ice bath … if someone had blown in his face at that moment, he'd have prayed to them as a god.

He could hear people murmuring around him; in the halls, there was running and yelling and panic, and in the next room, he could hear someone shouting 'code blue'. All of this, of course was through a muffled kind of filter. He blinked his eyes open again and saw that he wasn't in a regular room. He was in a quarantine room.

None of it mattered. It was _too damned hot._

* * *

><p>There was a kind of stillness that came with the panic that made Katara feel like a fly on the wall in her own life in the moment where it all crumbled apart. It wasn't the explosion that brought everything crashing, but the aftermath. There was shouting and screaming, in the school she'd spent the last three or four years in, and people she'd known since freshman year seemed not to recognize her in the daze that the explosion had brought.<p>

But she was being pulled, by Aidan, of all people, out of the dusty, smoky after-disaster of the explosion. He was pulling her by the hand in a way that reminded her of one Christmas morning, where she and Sokka had been tugging their mother by the hand toward the living room, to the Christmas tree, to see her Christmas present. He was pulling her to safety.

Then he let her go, as soon as they were out in the open air, stood completely still and threw his hands to the sky in surrender. Katara found herself grabbed by three or four police officers, or SWAT guys, or something, and being escorted away from where Aidan was arrested. She looked back as best she could, and saw him being cuffed behind his back, his eyes shut, his face wet and a tiny smile on his face.

It wasn't a smile of sick pleasure for what he'd done, but of relief for what he was. She had done something to him, something that had negated everything he'd ever known. Katara wasn't naïve enough to call him 'fixed', but he could certainly have been on the road to such a state.

"Oh my god, I'm so glad you're okay!" she heard her father's voice, and strong, supportive arms wrapped around her, squeezing her in a hug. Katara found herself overcome with relief for her own survival, and grabbed her father back, squeezing into the hug and burying her face in his chest. "You're okay, you're okay …" she heard her father whispering at a chant.

Katara shook her head and pulled back, looking up at her father. "Where's Sokka?" she asked in a panic.

"I'm here," Sokka's voice burst from behind Hakoda, and he grabbed his sister right out of their father's grasp and hugged her too. "Fuck, Katara, what were you _thinking?" _he cursed, his voice still breathless from the explosion. "It's only a miracle that bomb didn't …"

Katara pushed at her brother's chest and shook her head again. "No, it isn't!" she blinked at him. "Aang told me what it is! It's an activation serum, it acts with certain genetic codes-," she was cut off, probably for the best because she needed to put this together a lot better than she had.

"Whoa, slow down, Katara - what are you talking about?" Hakoda put a hand on his daughter's shoulder.

Katara pulled free of Sokka. "We need to find Aang. He knows more about it than I do. Where's Suki? Where're Toph and Zuko?" she looked around frantically.

"Suki went to the hospital. I made her go. She says she's fine, but …" Sokka trailed off, "And Toph too, but she was stumbling around like there was something wrong with her equilibrium," Sokka gestured to his head with a twirling-finger motion, "She went in the ambulance with Suki, Zuko and Azula."

Katara tilted her head, her expression darkening. "What's wrong with Zuko and Azula?"

Sokka drew his shoulders up pensively. "I don't know. Suki and Toph got into the ambulance, and Zuko and Azula were out cold on gurneys. Zuko's uncle said they fainted, and their mom was just crying her eyes out," he pulled a face and fixed his eyes on his little sister. "What about you, are you okay, Katara?"

Katara nodded emphatically. "I'm fine," she promised in the loud chatter and yelling of the crowds outside the smoking school. Katara didn't remember there having been a fire, but she supposed it had been hard to see in there. "I'm just a little shaken up is all," she added at the trembling feeling in her hands. She felt solid on her feet, nothing like fainting, but she was a little shaky.

"Okay," Hakoda took his daughters shoulder and pulled her in for another hug, before smiling wanly. "We can go home now, alright? You're going to eat, and then go straight to bed as soon as you get home, got it?" he told her seriously, before glancing to his son. "Both of you. Kelly is on her way with the jeep, she said she'd whip you up whatever you two want to eat."

Sokka smiled weakly at this, the idea of sleep so comforting now after all that had happened. Katara nodded wearily and hugged both of them one more time, worried for her friends and worried about the activation of that whole 'bending' thing. She had to find Aang. Aang would know what to do.

* * *

><p>Toph never cried. Ever. It just wasn't her nature. Sure, maybe under her hard shell, she felt just as strongly about certain things as Sokka (high-strung as he was) did, but she kept her emotions in check at all times. That was just how she was, and her friends accepted her that way. It had never been questioned. But for one of the first times in her life, she was truly scared.<p>

Scared because her eyes were itching, and her sight problems were varying from their regular color-challenged-ness. She was cuffed to her hospital bed on doctors orders - she'd only told her doctor, and made him swear not to tell anyone, even her parents - to keep from scratching her suffering eyes. But she was crying just the same, and the tears did their part to soothe the itching, and the ache behind her milky green eyes, but it was still agony.

Toph remembered being dizzy before getting in the ambulance, but not because of her sight failing her; because she felt the pull of the earth stronger than she'd ever felt it before. Part of her thought it had felt like gravity had been stronger, and part of her had felt like it wasn't the planet's magnetic pull and rather the earth - the dirt - _itself. _She still felt the earth pulling at her, though it was weaker while she lay flat on the bed in the hospital room.

Beyond the itching, Toph's eyesight had gotten steadily worse over the course of the hour she'd been in this room, and she'd found herself using a dictating program she'd written a long time ago for blind people to document what was happening to her, on her laptop. Not for any scientific benefit to the world, but because she wanted to keep a record. She'd pressed the familiar 'control' button and spoken, but when she'd finished with the obvious, she had found herself unable to say how she felt.

She didn't know how to put her feelings into words.

More tears fell and Toph kicked her laptop off her lap and it clattered on the floor, before the tears broke into sobs and she cursed that Aidan guy, and Katara for not getting them out of there, and Aang for leaving her here to go blind, alone, with her last images being only those of a hospital room, and her parents for giving her faulty genes.

She screamed into the room angrily, tears spilling from her eyes as she thrashed furiously.

* * *

><p>Suki sat in the waiting area, unrelated to either Zuko or Toph and therefore unable to see them. The whole hospital was a buzz of panic and chatter, and people were having all kinds of undocumented reactions to the neurotoxin. The news was on at full blare in a corner of the room, with a crowd gathered around it. Suki kept a hand on her middle, grateful that she and her baby were completely fine. She wasn't dumb enough to consider herself out of the woods yet; delayed reactions were still occurring nationwide.<p>

'_**LIVE FROM SEATTLE, MASS REACTIONS TO THE NEUROTOXIN RELEASED IN DAHLIA COAST, CALIFORNIA HAVE REACHED WASHINGTON. HOSPITALS ARE BEING FLOODED WITH PATIENTS. CURES USA CORRESPONDANT ALEXA REDFORD HAS MADE A STATEMENT PLACING THE TOXIN AS THE RESEARCH OF DR. KATHERINE ROBERTS OF THE DAHLIA COAST BRANCH OF CURES USA-,'**_

'_**-BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, PEOPLE ARE COLLAPSING IN THE STREET WITH ADVERSE REACTIONS TO THE UNIDENTIFIED NEUROTOXIN INVOLVED IN THE DAHLIA COAST PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL HOSTAGE SITUATION-,'**_

'… _**LONDON, ENGLAND - CURES USA BRANCH LEADER DOMINIC ROBERTS, HUSBAND OF THE NEUROTOXIN'S CREATOR, HAS SEEN TO SETTING UP CLINICS IN HOSPITALS ACROSS THE NATION TO TREAT RESPONSES IT'S CHEMICAL MAKEUP …'**_

'_**Los hospitales españoles se inundan con los pacientes!'**_

'_**Reakcje są neurotoksyny przejście Europy!'**_

'_**neurotoksin barat menjejaskan timur!'**_

Suki shook her head in her hand, thinking to the night before this whole ordeal. She'd told her father and grandfather about her pregnancy, and subsequently gotten herself kicked out of her own home. She remembered packing her bag and leaving, forcing herself not to cry, and then she recalled Sokka cleaning up his entire room of pretty much _everything _to make room for her.

Clothes on the floor had been whisked away to their respective places, empty wrappers had been put in bins, and he'd actually gone to the trouble of making his bed up nice and tearing down any posters of bands (namely Linkin Park and Paramore) that he recalled her not having liked in the past. Suki then cried that her father had kicked her out and that Sokka had been so willing to change his whole life for her and their baby.

She'd been planning to tell him later on in the day that she'd go to New York with him in September. Suki breathed a heavy sigh. She wished Sokka were here.

* * *

><p>Ty Lee burst into Azula's hospital room, with Mai right behind her. Ty Lee skidded to a halt beside Azula's bed, where the Scorsese girl was still unconscious in her bed, and she felt her eyes welling with tears. She should never have left to join the circus. She'd been leaving the city via interstate, in a trailer with the circus horses when she'd received the news via cell message.<p>

Their school had been held hostage. And then Azula was in hospital; Azula, who'd been a sister to her for as long as she could remember. Mai had picked Ty Lee up from the highway services and then they'd received a speeding ticket for racing back into the city to sit with their possibly dying friend. Mai approached quietly and solemnly, her face sullen.

Ty Lee threw her arms onto where Azula lay, and then recoiled at her raging fever, her hands on her cheeks in shock. Then she put one hand over her mouth and her brows tilted. "Her fever is …" she took an actual step back, "and her aura …"

Mai rolled her eyes at Ty Lee and her damn 'aura' nonsense. "What about her 'aura'?" Mai raised an eyebrow.

"It's not constant. Auras don't fluctuate this way. It's melting between red and a purplish black …" Ty Lee made a motion around her head and then shook it. "I never should've left," she then gasped as if she'd realized something. "I think she's trapped," she whispered suddenly.

Mai stared apathetically at Ty Lee. "Trapped," she repeated skeptically. Then she sighed, deciding to humor her friend. "Okay, trapped by what?"

"I don't know!" Ty Lee suddenly flung her arms around Mai, catching the taller girl off guard. "But there has to be something we can do to help her!"

Mai grimaced and plucked Ty Lee's hand from her shoulder, gently pushing the girl with the braid away. "Like what?" she breathed, inspecting her nails. She really wasn't all that worried about Azula; the girl was younger by a year, yes, but she always pulled through, no matter what was happening. She was content in herself, needed nobody else to approve of her and used her mind as a gymnasium to bounce ideas around.

Mai could recite a wonderful list of reasons she had faith in Azula. If anyone was going to make it through this, it was Azula. It was a waiting game.

"I know!" Ty Lee brought a hand to the air and pointed a lone finger upward. "If anyone will know what to do, it'll be her uncle!"

Mai's frown deepened. She really didn't like that old man. It was actually the latest reason she and Zuko had broken up. She glanced away at the thought of Zuko. She'd be lying if she said she didn't love him - she'd always love him - but she wasn't _in love _with him. She loved him the way she loved Azula, and Ty Lee. "Alright, fine," Mai breathed out. "Let's go find the old man."

Ty Lee grabbed Mai's hand and dragged her toward the door, calling back into the room to Azula as though she could hear her that they'd be back soon.

* * *

><p>Katara snuck out of the house instead of going to sleep, as per expected; why else would she have found her balcony door locked up and a bicycle parked right where she usually climbed down the trellis, in her way, and all the gates locked up? Not to worry, though; she was the Painted Lady. She hopped over the bike and slipped through the brush hedges onto a walk-path adjoining their property.<p>

She'd found herself undecided between going to the hospital and going to find Aang, at first, but then she resolved that Zuko probably didn't want to see her, and Toph and Suki had each other. Katara wondered what Aang was up to. He probably had a lot to figure out, what with the world going crazy and all. Things would probably get a whole lot worse before they got better.

She shivered and zipped her jacket up higher. It wasn't a specifically cold day - in fact, it had been really hot earlier, but still, it was chilly now. It looked like she was going to have to do what she could alone. If there was any place in the world to start looking for clues as to what was happening, why it was happening, (etcetera, etcetera), it was Dahlia Coast. Katherine Roberts had invented the toxin, as far as she knew, so maybe Cures USA was a good place to start snooping around.

When she actually got to the Cures USA building, people were rioting at the foot of the skyscraper, and the security guards were acting as a sort of brute squad to keep them out. Katara had a feeling things would be the same at Lydia's house, but she still needed to talk to Dr. Roberts. If anyone knew what was happening, it was her. As expected, she was right; the main gates were locked shut and people were rioting outside them, some throwing stones that didn't even get close to the house.

Katara eventually found a way in, behind the brushes and forestry to one side of the house, using a tree to help her get a leg up to hop the high wall. She jumped down to the soft grass and made her way toward the house. She knocked politely on the front door and then waited. Hopefully knocking would let them know she meant no harm. She held her hands together behind her back and rocked on her feet thoughtfully.

After a few minutes, and much whispering from inside, the one of the large double doors cracked open, a safety chain holding it connected to the other, and soft, young features peeked through the door, with deep brown eyes. It certainly wasn't Lydia, or her mother (Katara had seen Katherine Roberts on TV after her experimental and expensive treatment for diabetes). Katara wondered if everyone who lived on Milton Avenue had an illegal immigrant working in their house.

Not that she had anything against illegal immigrants; if you managed to get into the country, good on you, but Katara rather wished she too had some extra help in the house herself. Maybe someone to get the laundry done while she did the cooking and cleaning would be nice. Anyway. She'd found herself thinking on a tangent. She needed to get back to the task at hand.

"Um, hi," Katara lifted a hand and waved. "I'm looking for Lydia?" she blinked at the woman innocently.

The maid undid the chain and opened the door wider to eye Katara skeptically. "Ms. Roberts is terribly ill, Miss …?"

"Marina," Katara finished for her and put her hand back at her side, "Katara Marina. I didn't know she was sick, but I can guess why. I need to see her, and Dr. Roberts too, for that matter. It's really important. Could you _please _let me see them?" she tilted her brows and smiled awkwardly, rocking again on her feet and glancing out to the blue sky.

The maid bit her lip. "I … suppose so," she stepped back in defeat, allowing Katara into the house. "My name is Poquita - Miss Lydia and her mother are upstairs; in the east wing. Take the first left and then it's the large brass and glass doors at the end of the hall. You cannot miss it," she announced formally.

Yeah. That was about what Katara had expected Lydia's bedroom doors might look like.

Katara smiled at Poquita and walked through the main doors into an open-plan reception room, with some wicker sofas and chairs with tables for coffee and newspaper-reading. Katara stepped through the reception room to find herself in a room not unlike Zuko's ballroom, except nowhere near that size. It was warmer than the ballroom; instead of marble floor, it was dark, hardwood flooring, and the walls were painted rich, almost dark, forest green with chair rails that matched the floor. Someone here had an aesthetic.

The staircase began to the right side of the room, against the wall, and bent in the corner up the back wall. Katara recalled that this house was not as big as Zuko's; not as highfalutin. It was more traditional, if that was possible. Well, maybe not _more _traditional, but traditional in a different way. Whatever. It didn't matter.

Katara laughed inwardly. So this was the fabled 'terrah-cottah adobey caloneyawll', huh?

She made her way up the staircase and turned left down the hall into the 'east wing'. Her house didn't have wings. Or maybe it did, but they didn't call them that. Her bedroom was surrounded by its own few rooms like a bathroom, an extra living space, a study and a room with all the fittings to become a kitchen. In theory, she could build a whole apartment around her room if she wanted to. But, she liked going downstairs to fix herself food, and she liked spending time with her family. The same all went for Sokka, though he probably preferred just having the bedroom and bathroom, because if he started working on the kitchen, he'd have less credibility when asking Katara to cook for him.

Katara walked down a wide hall toward a pair of brass doors with clouded glass panes in it, and a Latin phrase on it. The door handles seemed to be made of rosewood. Katara was on good terms with Lydia, but she'd never deny that the girl liked her things big and fancy. Katara found herself biting back laughter at a dirty joke she'd made in her head.

She turned one of the handles and it made a soft, satisfying click of a noise as she pushed it open and stepped in. Katara's breath caught in her throat as she looked around at the beautiful color scheme. Cream and darker browns mingled together, highlighted with certain accents of a deep, dark midnight purple. It was gorgeous.

"Wow," she breathed in awe.

"What are you doing in my home?" came a sharp snap from behind her.

Katara whirled and saw an open door leading into a bathroom, where she could see Lydia in a bathtub. Katara flinched at first and then stepped closer, tentatively. Lydia was thankfully wearing clothes in the tub and Katara stood in the doorway, gazing upon the blonde girl. She was so pale. So _damned pale. _"What's happening to you?" she heard herself question meekly.

Lydia stared up at Katara and clenched her teeth. "Me? Oh, nothing. Just _freezing _to death," she stated with distaste. "Don't just stand there, Marina. Go help Poquita fill kettles, or something!" she shuddered in the water, and Katara could hear that Poquita woman coming into Lydia's bedroom from behind her.

"I can't," Katara replied apologetically, "I need to find out more about the toxin. I need you to help me."

Lydia drew in a long breath through her nose as Poquita pushed past Katara with two kettles. Katara stared in horror as the Mexican woman poured in the boiling water and Lydia just tipped her head back a little to the enjoy the wave of heat that rushed past her. How cold could she be if the only thing that provided her warmth was boiling water? Lydia spoke again.

"My mother didn't make the toxin," she managed, struggling not to stutter. "Your bald friend gave it to me to test. The school nurse injected him with it. He told me he thought someone paid her a lot of money to keep an eye on him. I took it to the lab to test it, and it correlated with almost everything my mother was researching."

There was a brief pause.

"What was she researching?" Katara asked nervously.

"Elemental abilities, for want of a better phrase. A hybrid animal was found in Asia with the genetic ability to shift earth beyond physical force, and then there were dragon fossils and the bison found in the Tibetan mountain range … they all linked up to a single allele in the genetic code of human beings.

"My mother never found the fourth code, despite knowing there had to be one. After running over my test results a hundred times over, she's found it in me, but she hasn't found its animal counterpart as of yet. The water allele. Against my mother's wishes, we tested the toxin on me. Three hours later I was unable to keep my own body temperature in. My guess is that Aidan moron took it to get back at me for not wanting to fuck his brains out."

Katara frowned hard, choosing to ignore that little tidbit of information. "Is there any kind of antitoxin your mother can put together? If these abilities develop …"

Lydia shook her head. "They already have, Marina," Lydia struggled to lift a hand in the water, and she brought the water with it, in a shimmering glove around her hand. She wasn't even thinking about it, it was just … following her. She stared at it herself and then the water dripped off her hand back into the tub. "If anyone knows how to change it back, it's got to be your bald friend."

Katara stared for a moment and remembered the woman at the circus - the witch. There had to be people who kept abilities like that under wraps. Aang had known about them, and that witch woman had _had _them. Who else could help her. "I hope you get better, Lydia," she smiled weakly at the blond girl.

Lydia raised an eyebrow. And then reluctantly, "Thank you."

* * *

><p>Katara went back to the house and put Ollie on the leash, deciding she had left Sokka to walk him for too long now. Ollie was beginning to look more like a dog and less like a puppy, but he was still adorable. Lydia had said she'd been affected three hours after being injected. So why was everyone else reacting already? It was only barely half past two, and lunchtime at school (i.e. the time the bomb had gone off) had been at one o' clock.<p>

Katara looked at the sky and thought back to what Aang had said about the 'benders'.

'_I'm an airbender, so I don't rely on any external sources of energy, but firebenders draw their strength from the sun, and waterbenders draw their strength from the moon. Earthbenders are like airbenders in that they don't need to draw strength from an external source, but they feel at one with the earth, just as airbenders are … uh, were … taught to feel at one with the universe."_

If Lydia was a waterbender - what a strange word! - then maybe it had been three hours until the moon had come up from when she'd been injected. Maybe the first moonrise after 'activation' was what had affected Lydia. So a whole new wave of symptoms were going to crop up tonight once the moon came up. Katara grimaced as Ollie trotted along ahead of her on his leash.

Katara patted her own hips to remind herself she had her guns. In this chaos, she wasn't about to go outside unarmed. It was a strange feeling - to have to carry guns to be safe. She'd traded her favorite leather jacket in for one of Sokka's navy blue and white varsity jackets, since it came down to her mid-thighs and easily covered her customs. Her snow boots made a scuffing sound on the tarmac path through the park as she walked. Why was she so damned cold?

Before Katara knew what was happening, the tarmac under her feet shifted and she pushed herself across it to avoid the shift under her feet. A sinkhole? She turned on her heel and stepped backward, scooping Ollie up into her arms - eliciting a little yap from him - and looking around frantically. She saw a man, a good fifteen feet back from where she had been walking. He held a clump of rock in his hand, and was dressed in heavy robes of a deep green so dark it was nearly black.

"Excuse me, ma'am, but are you aware that it's past curfew?" she heard a voice from beneath the man's conical hat.

Katara screwed up her face, hugging Ollie tighter, involuntarily. Curfew? "What?" she heard herself question, as the wheels of her mind began to turn. "America's a free country, we don't have a curfew," she stated, more to herself than to him. What, was he some kind of wacko or something? He didn't _sound _American.

"As of one 'o clock today, a curfew is imposed on all major cities in the United States. If you were not informed, you have been now. I am Agent Fong of the Dai Li. Allow me to escort you to your home, miss," he bowed briefly and then moved toward her.

Katara's left gun was out in a split second. Her right arm was still a little choppy since her injury, and she wasn't taking any chances. Dai Li? What the hell? "Hey, stand back or I'll shoot," she warned darkly, her golden gun gleaming in the sunlight. Only then did Katara realize how completely deserted the park was. Nobody was around at all. "I don't know who you think you are, but if there had been a curfew imposed by the American government, I'd have heard about it."

The agent tilted his head back so Katara could see his face beneath his conical hat. "The curfew was not imposed by the American government," he explained, amused, "The Dai Li Party have imposed it, as they will have full control of Washington DC by morning. I advise you to put your firearm away and allow me to escort you to your home."

Katara screwed up her face and hugged Ollie to her chest with her right arm. A political takeover? No! No, a _military _takeover. America had been _invaded. _Where were these Dai Li agents? All the major cities … Katara's mind churned as she realized that the Dai Li were situated all over the country - there was no way that had happened in the two hours since Aidan had blown that bomb off. Aidan had been involved in … no! No, how could he? He'd been _changed. _She'd changed him! Why hadn't he told her?

Katara found herself swallowing hard. "If you're the new government …" she squeezed, testing, on the trigger, "then I guess I'm the first official member of the Resistance!" and she pulled back the trigger, two or three or four times, and ducked out of the way, her expectation meeting reality - the clump of earth in the agent's hand dispersed into shards splitting into her direction. She and Ollie ducked behind a low stonewall and she hit the ground, back first.

Sokka would kill her for getting mud on his jacket.

"Miss, I urge you to reconsider your course of action," the monotonous voice came again, closing in on them.

Katara found herself wishing she didn't have to keep an eye on Ollie at this point, but she kept him in her arms and moved away from the wall, away from the voice and turned to fire a few more bullets at the agent. One ripped through the green-clad shoulder of the agent, just as a perfectly round stone clipped Katara in the side of her head and sent her reeling backward. She went down, back-first. The mud was soft, but marked the entire back of her clothes.

'_Dammit! I don't even have a fighting chance against this sonovabitch! The guy has superpowers!' _her mind screamed in her head. _'Fucking __**hell!**__' _she cursed in her own mind and glanced to Ollie, who gazed at her as if smirking at her use of language inside her head. Ollie was a smart dog, and sometimes he just _knew _things. Katara was sure of it. He even looked _smug _when she came out of the bathroom looking thoroughly sated, with the ghost of Zuko's name on her lips.

Damn Toph for explaining to her the ins and outs (pun not intended, but nonetheless achieved :3) of female masturbation.

Katara's head span for a moment with the hit to her head but she regained her bearings and drew in another breath on her back. The Dai Li agent hissed in pain with his pierced shoulder and she staggered to her feet, firing another two shots and taking advantage of his indisposition. He growled and threw his arm toward her, a stone fist racing in her direction. One of Katara's badly-aimed bullets ripped through the agent's upper thigh, and the stone hand collided with her ankle, nailing it to the floor.

'_No! I'm trapped!' _she panicked, trying to pull her foot up and finding herself unable to do so. She fired a shot at her own foot, desperately hoping it didn't rip through it too. Much to her relief, it didn't, ricocheting off the condensed stone as it exploded from around her ankle. Katara took a step back as the bleeding agent staggered to strike her again. His shot missed by a mile and Katara deemed it safe to turn and run, as Ollie yapped with each bounce as she ran.

* * *

><p>"Aang!" Katara panted, "Aang!" she gasped for air, as Ollie raced along beside her on his leash. Aang turned from where he was standing with Yue Chander in front of the hospital. Aang turned to face her and his eyes went wide. She ran right into him, throwing her arms around his shoulders and breathing hard. Ollie kept running and then tugged on his leash, his feet coming right out from under him.<p>

"-Oof!" Aang grunted on impact, the wind knocked out of him. "What's going on?" he queried, choking on his surprise.

Katara pulled back and then smacked him across the cheek. "You took off on me! The whole world is changing right under us and you took off on me! I just got attacked by some guy trying to impose a curfew; he said the 'Dai Li' were taking over … I don't suppose you know what that means?" she panted for breath as Ollie sniffed at Aang's ankles.

Aang's eyes widened. "The Dai Li are _here?_" he whispered in a panic.

Yue eyed them curiously.

Katara nodded emphatically; "He said the Dai Li Party were imposing a curfew on all major cities across the country," she ran her tongue along her chapped lower lip. "And … and that they planned to have taken over Washington DC by morning. We've got to stop them, right?" she asked worriedly.

Aang's brows came down hard. "I have to stop them," he corrected his friend, his hands emanating warmth through the sleeves her jacket. "You need to warm up."

Katara frowned. "What? No - how can you take on an entire-,"

"Katara," Aang shook his head quickly, "You need to take care of yourself. The moon is coming up, and your reaction's going to come on. Go home and get in bed."

Katara shivered almost as soon as he said this. She had been right in her assumption earlier. "There's no way you can fight off a takeover like that, superpowers or no!" she insisted adamantly, and then she drew her shoulders up against the cold.

Aang blinked at her for a moment. "Not alone. I won't be able to stop them from taking DC. But we'll have to form a kind of rebellion to take it back. For now, we need to get past the activation reactions. We'll figure it out, Katara. I promise. But first, we need to get past this. Go home. Take care of yourself," he smiled wanly at her. "I'll keep you posted on how the others are doing. I'm going in to see Toph and Zuko now."

Katara's brows knitted in frustration. "Me too. I want to see how-,"

"I said go home, Katara. Before you start shivering."

Katara growled irritably and turned away, looking to Ollie. "Come on, Ollie." And she ran.

* * *

><p>Ollie yapped as Katara curled up in her bed for the second time that day, with a hot cup of orange-flavored hot chocolate with marshmallows, three hot water bottles, her fuzzy, powder-blue bed robe (a birthday present from Sokka), her warmest pajamas, her fuzzy Christmas socks, her faux-fur Christmas slippers (a gift from Aang, because he was the best) and a hat pulled down over her ears. The puppy eventually curled up at her feet as she stared into her hot chocolate.<p>

Aang had been right, of course; because she was now freezing, despite all her warm-and-fuzzies - probably not as cold as Lydia Roberts, but pretty damned close to it. She put her hot drink down, remembering the night she'd left a steaming cup of hot chocolate on the kitchen counter upon her abduction. Katara still shuddered each time she saw the pinkish stain on her kitchen floor, and looked over her shoulder every four seconds when she was in that room.

She picked up her mother's journal, tried to read it, but found herself unable to concentrate on anything other than her shivering. She cursed herself for not having gone to see Zuko before this had taken her whole body over. There were goosebumps on her, and she knew this was because she hadn't been completely taken over by the cold yet. She could still feel the warmth of the hot water bottles. Then again, she wondered if Zuko was mad at her. She'd made a pretty dumb move trying to save the school.

No. Not the school. The _world._

Sokka brought her another hot water bottle, and Suki took the empty hot chocolate cup away. Katara glanced to the bulge in Suki's middle, and found herself grateful that her sister was okay. There really was a silver lining, she supposed. It was a miracle Suki was okay, especially when she, Toph and Zuko were all being affected. Aang she guessed, as the 'Avatar' - whatever the hell that meant - was immune to the effects. Katara felt a twinge of jealousy in her gut as a wave of cold took her over.

She switched on the TV to see the news.

'_Mass effects of a new wave of the toxin reactions have broken out across the world. Fox news' anonymous source for the toxin explains that this is the 'water' sector of the population, that which is feeling the delayed reactions. The statement he gave was that water 'benders' would be taken by extreme chills and losses of body temperature, the direct opposite of the high-grade fever being experienced by what the source named 'firebenders'. More as the story develops.'_

'_In other news, though not necessarily unrelated, curfews are somehow being enforced in major cities by an external authority calling itself the 'Dai Li Party'. While it has so far only treated compliant citizens with courtesy and understanding, resistors have been murdered and beaten brutally in unexplainable manners. The curfew is guessed to be at 3PM, as the earliest enforcement was encountered barely past three this afternoon. We have received word that curfew lifts at 6AM. Hospitals where reactions are being treated seem not to have the curfew enforced. Again, more as the stories develop.'_

The TV chattered on in the background, and Ollie barked after it turned to the weather update, before his soft brown eyes turned to Katara and he tilted his head curiously. Katara had fallen asleep - or unconscious - the remote in her hand and her chin against her chest, eyes fallen shut and her paling lips parted. Ollie yapped some more, knowing something was wrong, before he skidded out of the room to fetch someone for help, still barking frantically.

* * *

><p>"Toph?"<p>

The girl looked in the direction of the voice, but saw only a blur of skin with blue tattoos and an orange sweatshirt. Toph felt her face contorting with anger and fury as he drew nearer, obviously confused as to why she was cuffed to the bed. He laid a hand on hers and she jerked it away, only to tug on the restraints on her wrists. Aang drew his hand back and lifted it to the back of his neck, confused.

"Look, I'm sorry I left, but I had to talk to some people. A lot of things are happening; DC's under attack, a curfew's being imposed on all major cities across the country-,"

Toph screwed up her face. "Why are you here?" she stared into the darkness, knowing she wasn't looking at him, and that it was the best course of action.

Aang was taken aback for a moment. "I … came because I wanted to see you."

'_See me. Yeah, go ahead and look. Take a nice long look, you sonovabitch.' _Toph gritted her teeth. "We're not together, Aang. We're done. _Over. _Capiche? I don't want you here," she turned her blurry gaze even further away from him, trying her best to maintain her inner calm. If he suspected something was wrong, he might tell the others. How do you explain something like that? How was she supposed to tell him - anyone - she was quickly going blind?

Everything she knew - encryptions, mathematics, sequences, patterns - was going to be useless in a matter of hours. Her life was _over._

Aang swallowed hard. "Toph … what are you looking at?" Aang turned his head in the same direction as her as if trying to see what she was watching.

Toph growled under her breath. "Fuck you, Aang, get the fuck out of here!" she shouted at him, moving to grab something to throw, but only finding her wrists bound against that action. She snarled at this frustration and turned her head, desperately hoping she was glaring at him, her eyes narrowed. She saw the blur of his gray eyes in the sea of his skin. Even now, the stormy color of his eyes stirred her. But she glared just the same.

Aang fixed his eyes on hers - she wasn't even making eye contact. He took an involuntary step back and shook his head, brows knitting together. "Toph, something's wrong with your-," he stopped himself when he realized her cheeks were wet and he ran his tongue over his lower lip. No. _No. _This was his fault. If he'd stopped Aidan, if he'd stopped that bomb from going off, hell … if he'd just been there …

Toph choked a miserable, heart-wrenching, graceless sob and squeezed her eyes shut, hunching over and crying hard, tears falling into her blanketed lap. She tugged wildly on her restraints to rub at her eyes but couldn't get free. "I-! Hate you!" she screamed hoarsely, "Get out! **Get the fuck out!" **and she sobbed even harder, her black bangs falling over her face as she cried. She inhaled sharp, gritty breaths between sobs.

Aang shook his head in horror and lifted his hands to grip his head. '_No! No, no, no, no! Oh, fuck, Toph … Toph, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, this is my fault, I'm so sorry …' _Aang's mind ran loops in his cranium and his eyes were so wide he felt they wanted to pop out of his head. Toph was crying her - soon to be useless - eyes out in front of him and he could do nothing, and say nothing, to help her.

"_**Get out! Just leave me the fuck alone! I hate you! I hate you! I HATE YOU!"**_

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Welcome to Life Is Like A Lyric! I really wanted to try something apocalyptic, but still kind of upbeat and light, so this is a whole new experience for me. This was finished on the morning of December 3rd, 2011 - also known as My Birthday. Alrighty then - let's get started. We'll go scene to scene.**

**Scene 1 (Zuko's Memory and Awakening) - Now, Zuko doesn't get all the 'aw, I want to cuddle him now' attention Katara does, and I think that needs to be remedied. I really hope I got the chaos right in that scene; his cluttered memory of the aftermath of the explosion. I also think Zuko could be affected by his first time back in hospital since he got his scar.**

**Scene 2 (Katara Gets out of the School and goes to Sokka and Hakoda) - I wanted to try the thing where the families show up in a panic because they have loved ones in the situation like that. I saw a movie where a plane was being held hostage, and the families of the passengers all gathered together at the airport in frenzy. I wanted to see what I could do with it.**

**Scene 3 (Toph realizes what's happening to her) - Toph going blind was a decision I struggled to make. I know it would screw me up immensely if I went blind, especially since computing is my whole life. Again, it's interesting to see what it's like to change a character's whole life, and to see how they react to things. Toph is a great character and I want to try more with her.**

**Scene 4 (Suki in the hospital, News on in background) - This scene really has less to do with Suki and more to do with how the world is reacting to the toxin. It's affecting the whole damn planet and nobody knows how to deal with that. The spell between the reactions and the Dai Li becoming apparent was important to me because I wanted to make it known that the world is _already _having a crisis, without the hostile takeover to complicate things.**

**Scene 5 (Ty Lee and Mai go to see Azula in hospital) - is because Ozai's Angels are the biz. I promise to have you some Ozai/Ursa lovin' next chapter.**

**Scene 6 (Katara does some snooping and talks to Lydia) - Waterbender!Lydia is the best idea I've had since I brought her into this fic. ^_^**

**Scene 7 (Katara is attacked by a Dai Li agent) - is mainly because I wanted Ollie to pop up. The Dai Li guy just showed up and I figured out how to bring the Dai Li into it. Thanks to Ollie!**

**Scene 8 (Katara finds Aang) - Aang is especially selfless here with the whole 'go home' thing. I think Aang needs more love because he has a lot on his shoulders. Saving the world at fourteen is not an easy task, and Aang accepts that he can't expect Toph to understand it, despite how much he loves her.**

**Scene 9 (Katara finally feels the effect of the toxin) - nuff said.**

**Scene 10 (Aang visits Toph in hospital) - I love writing Toph. I hope I did her justice.**

**Oh-kay! So, that's chapter one done. Lyrics are from Fleetwood Mac's 'Go Your Own Way'! REVIEW guys! WELCOME BACK TO THE LILA series! HAPPY NEW YEAR! Btw, I did a happy new year comic on DA, featuring Lydia in a bathrobe ... XD  
><strong>


	2. And Still Those Voices Are Calling

Zuko's breathing was so hard he was sure he was just saying 'ha- ha- ha-,' over and over again. He'd found himself sleeping for hours after hours after collapsing, and now, exhausted as he was, he was too hot and too irritated and too restless to fall asleep now. Why was it so _fucking _hot? He ripped away the tangled, cheap sheets around his legs and threw himself into a sitting position, panting into the darkened room.

"Fuck," he heard himself whisper on a breath he was sure formed steam around his mouth.

Zuko blinked his eyes open and squinted in the dark to look around. He'd been right, hours ago; he was in a hospital room, a quarantine room with a weak air conditioner whirring on one side of the room. His rational mind, almost forgotten, knew the air conditioner would do nothing to cool him, but he still pushed his feet off the bed, and marveled at how wonderfully cold the tile floor was under them.

He struggled to stay on his feet and he staggered toward the air conditioner on the wall. He got to it and stood beneath it, but felt none of the cool air he'd imagined it raining down on him. Zuko knew it was a stupid reaction, but he was immediately irritated by the weak air conditioner and he reached up to smack his hand into the side of it in an effort to get it to work properly. It did nothing but grind in protest, and his anger got the best of him. He threw his fist into the bottom of it and left a small dent in it, the impact of the weak punch shuddering through Zuko's arm. He suddenly felt a whole lot weaker.

"Nngh," Zuko pushed his weight against the wall and sank to the floor, until his jeans were runched up to his knees to get some cool air on him. He grabbed the bottom of his long-sleeved shirt and pulled it over his head, his breathing still desperately hard and his lungs burning in his heaving, muscular chest. Tossing it away, Zuko squeezed his eyes shut and tried to focus on his breathing, but it only got worse. "It's too hot," he muttered in futility. "It's _too fucking hot."_

He slid down even further, this time sideways, until he was laid on the cold tile floor, his arm extended above his head, the side of his ribcage against the cool of the floor. This gave him minimal relief, but it was relief just the same. He gasped for his ragged, hot breaths, and they came to him reluctantly. With each one, he wondered if it would be his last - if the oxygen would simply deny his ragged gasp for it.

A cool hand touched his upper arm and his eyes snapped open. He saw his uncle standing over him. Zuko imagined he must have looked a picture; lying on the floor, shirtless, sweating so hard his hair stuck to his neck and face, his jeans pulled up to his knees to get rid of some body heat and his eyes dancing like those of a drug addict. Iroh offered a cool hand.

Without thinking, Zuko took the hand and struggled to his feet, leaning on his uncle, despite being taller than the old man. Zuko leant on his uncle's shoulder and hung his head weakly. "Uncle …" he rasped, "what's … what's happening to me?" he heard his voice crack in his burning throat. Iroh led him to the bed and helped him back into it.

The older man just watched him wearily, pulling the sheets back over Zuko. When Zuko tried to push the sheets away, Iroh's hands grew a strength Zuko hadn't known his uncle to possess - either that or Zuko was just so weak he couldn't fight against even him. "You must try to sweat this out," his uncle told him calmly, taking a corner of one of the sheets to dab at the sweat on his nephew's forehead. Zuko accepted the sheets, reluctantly.

Zuko fell unconscious again, sprawled out on the hospital bed, his chin tilted to the ceiling and his eyes shut heavily, but not tightly, breathing softly and deeply through his nose.

* * *

><p>Kana put the back of her aged hand to her granddaughter's forehead. Katara slept on her side, her chin to her chest, her knees to her forehead, her arms wrapped around her thighs and calves, her toes jerking occasionally in the slippers under the three heavy duvets she slept under. The young girl shivered uncontrollably, having slept for ten hours straight already.<p>

Pakku stood on one side of the room, arms crossed, biting back against the urge to pace, silent. Sokka did pace, near the window, his hands in his pockets and his eyes darting to Katara every so often. Suki sat on the window seat, her chin in her hands, his eyes downcast. Hakoda sat on the bed, gazing at his daughter with a wan expression on his face.

"It's not good," Kana finally spoke, with a sigh. She looked up to the others, "Someone should renew the water in her hot water bottles," she suggested worriedly.

Suki pushed away from the window seat and reached under the duvets to snatch up two of the six hot water bottles Katara had accumulated over the night. The early morning sun shone into the room and spanned around the room, but the warmth it brought went unnoticed by most people in the room. Kelly, who stood with her back to the wall and her arms crossed, shut her eyes and breathed a heavy sigh.

It was going to be a long day.

* * *

><p>By morning, Toph knew when she opened her eyes there would be no difference to having kept them shut, and she was right. She was greeted only by solitary darkness, and the muffled chatter of nurses, doctors, patients and families in the hallway. She gritted her teeth and bit her tongue in her mouth for a moment, before hesitantly speaking into the darkness - she wasn't sure if the room was darkened or if it was just her blindness making it seem that way, but the halls were pretty lively for it to have been nighttime.<p>

"You'd better not still be here, Twinkletoes."

She tensed at the sound of Aang drawing a long, exhausted breath. She didn't need to ask to know he'd stayed up all night, just standing there after returning, after she'd told him to get the fuck out. He'd stood there all night, probably watching over her; the poor little blind girl. She bet he was probably beating himself up over the whole thing, too. Jackass.

"What do you want from me, Aang?" Toph heard herself heave a frustrated breath before she'd even thought about the words, "You want me to hold your hand and tell you it's okay; that I forgive you? That whatever is happening isn't actually your fault? You want me to feed you some bullshit? It would make us even, don't you think?"

"Your parents are in the lobby signing your discharge papers. The hospital is trying to clear beds for the wave of new outbreaks that came in last night." He didn't elaborate, even though he probably could've. Toph didn't ask.

Toph blew a breath toward the ceiling, despite not being able to see it. "You want to rescue me from those fuckers, do ya? It's kinda late to play hero, isn't it?"

"Toph …"

"… After you sent _Katara _to save the day?" she continued harshly, "you cowardly, yellow sack of shit," she spat into the room, hearing her voice bounce back on the tile walls of her hospital room. "I don't need your fucking help, Aang. Blind or not, if I want to get away from my folks, I'll do it. And I'll do it on my _own_."

Aang made a tiny noise under his breath of defeat. "I'm just trying to help you, Toph. I don't know what … what it must feel like to lose-,"

"Are you deaf?" Toph snapped dryly, "I don't want your help, and I don't want your charity, but more than any of that … I _**don't **_want your _**pity**_."

Toph sensed him getting up and pulling a jacket on. "Will you call, if you need anything?"

"I don't need anything from you. I'm fine on my own."

Aang made another noise under his breath and Toph heard his footsteps leaving her alone. She rolled onto her side and tried to collect her thoughts before she was whisked away to her own personal hell. This was majorly fucked up. Everything was. She remembered telling Katara that things would get worse before they got better, and she cursed herself.

* * *

><p>Ursa sat on the floor of the parlor, the coffee table pushed against the far wall, with a cup of tea in her hands and her eyes down to the box of photographs on the rug beneath her. Her babies had been fine just the other day. Completely fine. She'd kissed them goodbye, sent them to school … and now this? Azula had a fever so high they'd had to put her in an ice bath to get her cool enough to check her vitals, and Zuko was mumbling things from strange nightmares.<p>

She was grateful that Iroh had offered to stay at the hospital so she could go home for some sleep, and she _was _exhausted, but she couldn't sleep. So instead she went over the baby pictures of her beautiful children. She remembered a time when they were safe in her arms from anything that could have harmed them, and she sighed heavily, taking another sip of tea.

If she'd been less immersed in the pictures, she might have noticed the soft footstep on the ballroom floor, but she wrote it off as a drip in the aging house's attic, in the back of her mind. Golden eyes settled on a particular photograph between her thumb and forefinger; Azula and Zuko sitting together, aged eight and ten, on one of the larger branches of the dead cherry blossom toward the back of the ten acres adjoining the mansion. It couldn't have been taken long after they'd moved into the house; after Azulon's death.

Ursa remembered the old house in New York as she came to an even older picture; Zuko and Ozai wearing Yankees caps, Zuko already wearing his mitt and Ozai carrying his as they made their way toward the car. Ursa remembered taking the picture as they left the house to go to the Yankees-Red Sox game. She recalled Ozai taking his son by the wrist - not the hand - to walk him across the street to where their Mercedes was parked, and Zuko skipping alongside his father's long-legged, surefooted strides, chattering on about how the Yankees were going to kick some New England ass. And she remembered Azula sitting in front of the TV that day, intent on seeing her brother and father in the bleachers.

A tiny smile found its way to Ursa's face as she took a long blink and a sip of tea. What if she lost them now? Oh, dear _gods … _what if the fever consumed them? Iroh had warned her this could happen, years ago, but she'd always thought the Dai Li had died away a long time ago; that _her _babies would be safe from that. And now … in a random twist of fate … Ursa put her cup of tea down next to her and wiped her face.

And then she caught the subtle, almost silent footstep on the bottom step of one of the grand staircases and she drew a gasp, eyes snapping open wide as she pushed herself to her feet. On instinct, she moved to the doorway of the parlor, looking into the ballroom; Consuela shouldn't have been awake already, and Ozai had slept in the morning before, feeling the effects of the toxin, though not as drastically as the kids had, for complicated reasons she was already aware of.

What she saw was a small band of men in dark green, in the darkened ballroom, lit only by the wall lanterns, casting long shadows across the marble floor. On a single glance, Ursa judged true and moved to duck back behind the wall, out of their view, but one had spotted her, and the next thing she knew was that her wrist was secured to the white, stone arch by a clay sculpture of a hand.

Ever the stoic, Ursa tugged once against it, testing, before she stilled herself and swallowed back her irritation as the band - now she had counted five men - drew nearer.

One of them, toward the back, cleared their throat and addressed one who seemed to be of a higher rank, speaking in Chinese. Ursa had studied the language for a short while, and could pick up on a few terms. _"Colonel Shang … Long Feng … this house … suitable headquarters …"_

The head one, presumably Colonel Shang, answered back curtly - to quickly for Ursa to pick anything up - and kept walking until he was leaning only inches from her face, before he addressed his men again, this time in plain English. "Men, do you think Long Feng intended that Fire Nation scum die for this house to become Dai Li property?" he smirked thoughtfully, seeming to enjoy some kind of irony.

"I-it's possible, sir," one of them replied.

Ursa's tongue lashed out against her own commonsense. "How _dare _you insult me in my own home, you disgusting _rats_?" her brows went up and she spoke in a steely tone.

The head - Shang - paused and watched her for a moment, before he laughed out heartily. "I should've known better than to assume a thousand years would breed the fire out of those passionate, tempered Fire native women," he spoke over his shoulder to his men, and they got the joke, and laughed carefully. Ursa screwed up her face and spat into his face. Shang's face contorted, and a sharp intake of breath caught his men in a stranglehold. "Disgusting _bitch_," he seethed, reaching up and wiping his face with his sleeve.

Ursa lifted her free arm, jerking her elbow so the hidden blade in her sleeve slid out at her wrist. She tilted her hand back to expose the knife to the air as she flung her arm toward Shang's face. The knife tore flesh and Shang let out a warbled scream as the metal tore horizontally across his eye and the bridge of his nose. Blood spilled down his face and he collapsed to the smooth marble floor where the crimson remains of his eye were pooling. Ursa lifted a leg and kicked him in the top of the head with her expensive heeled shoes, caving in his skull with the heel.

But she didn't kill him on the spot. Yes, he'd die, but he'd suffer first.

Another stone fist came to trap the hand she'd slashed Shang with, beside her head, and she kicked out with both legs, catching a man in the stomach with the hard bottoms of her shoes, sending him downward. The man she'd kicked slid on his back across the marble floor until his head came in contact with the bottom step of one of the grand twin staircases and he fell unconscious. Three left.

Ozai woke up to the quiet sound of whispers in the ballroom. It was early - way too early for Ursa to be awake; she usually slept in, her face buried in the satin sheets of her bed down the hall, in the east wing of the house, as far as could be from his quarters in the west. And Consuela didn't speak unless spoken to. It could've been one of the other servants, but they usually kept to the lavish servant quarters in the south wing. Azula and Zuko shared the north wing.

His head thumped a steady pulsating beat, and he pinched the bridge of his nose as he swung his legs out of the bed and got up. He pulled the hair tie from his wrist and fixed his hair behind his head, out of his way. He supposed he should've considered himself lucky - that he wasn't writhing in agony with a fever like his children were. He owed that to his father. His father, who'd insisted on his sons bending the way their family had for generations.

Breathing a heavy, weary sigh, Ozai moved through his bedroom to the red and gold double doors out into the main hallway. Once out in the hall, he heard a warbling kind of scream and his eyes shot open in confusion.

On instinct, his legs took off from under him and he raced down the hall toward the grand staircases. Of all the days for random bullshit to happen in his house, it had to be today.

He reached the staircase in moments, the metallic scent of blood filling his nostrils. In the candlelit ballroom, the blood pool on the floor looked like black ink, and crouched in it, was a man clutching his face and wailing insufferably. Then his eyes caught Ursa, fighting against three with only her legs, her arms somehow secured to the wall - and holding her own, too.

Quick feet moved swiftly down the familiar staircase and quicker, bare arms thrust forward, and the light that grew in his hands lit a spark he hadn't felt in _so long. _Flames licked around his fingers as fire curled in his palm and he threw his arm in the direction of the men attacking his … wife? Ex-wife? It didn't matter at this point. His flames took one down in a killing strike.

The next attack he threw was a ball of curling flames large enough that it took out the other two in a single blow. Blinding light took over the room, echoed by the sounds of thuds and shouts, and the smell of burning flesh. Ozai smirked, but it didn't reach his eyes. There was brief gurgling, but then, when the smoke cleared, there was only silence, and breathing.

Ozai stood over the bodies of the Dai Li agents for a moment, breathing calmly, before he turned toward Ursa to see her watching him with a dark expression on her face. He approached and slowly lifted his hands to peel away the firm grip of the stone hand on one of her wrists.

"Consuela won't clean this up," Ursa whispered, hating the way her voice cracked.

"No," Ozai agreed, sickened at the smell of blood, as one of her wrists came free. "I'll sort it out," he told her plainly.

Ursa blinked at him for a moment, before nodding tiredly, her fatigue catching up to her. Even after all that … her mind still dwelled on her children. God forbid they didn't make it … oh, gods forbid; that wouldn't happen. It couldn't. It just couldn't. She couldn't forget the way Azula's breathing fluctuated in her sleep, or the way Iroh had described Zuko sprawled on the tile floor to cool down.

As if he'd read her thoughts, Ozai sighed heavily and spoke, "Of anyone, you should believe in them the most; you should be the one who knows they are strong enough to survive this," he told her sternly, as the second binding came free and she rubbed at them wordlessly. He didn't know if he was just trying to comfort her with empty words, or speaking true, but he told her this just the same.

Ursa slowly put her arms around his neck and put her forehead to the side of his neck. Then she began to cry into him.

Ozai, not knowing what else to do, stood there and let her.

* * *

><p>"I hate hospital food," Mai complained, her cheek on the back of her hand as she picked at the food on the tray in front of her. "There's a TGI-Friday's just around the corner, you know. You ever tried the rib rack they serve there?" Mai looked up to Ty Lee, who was sitting opposite her, eating a pasta salad. <em>"That's <em>food. This here is cardboard with paprika."

Ty Lee shook her head. "I'm a vegetarian."

"Oh yeah," Mai breathed a sigh of boredom. "But they have vegetarian stuff at TGI-Friday's, so why don't we-,"

Ty Lee shot Mai a look she'd only ever seen on the Scorsese siblings, and she piped down. "We're not leaving. Azula's going to wake up, and when she does, we're going to be here to keep her company," she explained calmly, before her chipper expression returned to her face, "I heard Zuko woke up earlier, so Azula probably will too."

Mai frowned. "He was awake for all of two minutes, Ty Lee. That doesn't exactly fill me with optimism."

"Well, it should."

Out of the blue, Mai grimaced. "Why isn't that Marina girl here? She should be sitting and complaining about bad hospital food, waiting for Zuko to wake up again," she stated dryly.

Ty Lee made a face of innocent thoughtfulness. "Hm. Good point. Maybe she's out buying him flowers or something!" she suggested cheerfully.

Mai was about to tell Ty Lee that Zuko would hate that - flowers! Ha! A better get-well-soon gift for him would be whiskey, or cigarettes or something. Then something dawned on the Tamesis girl and she smiled slightly at her own genius. "That would be really sweet," she drawled in her usual bored tone, "I bet Azula would like some get-well-soon flowers too."

Ty Lee gasped and shot out of her seat. "You're right! Come on, Mai!" she grabbed Mai's arm and marched out of the hospital cafeteria.

Fucking Genius.

* * *

><p>Toph swallowed hard, before she pushed herself from where she sat on the rail of her balcony. She had a feeling if she were able to see, she might not have risked the jump, but she had to get away; her mother was wailing over her daughter having gone blind, and her father was calling every eye doctor in the country to see if there was something they could do, and yelling and shouting indignantly at the universe, and she just had to get away.<p>

Her bare feet hit the soft grass and dirt and it felt good under them, but she still pulled on the sandals in her hand; running away meant being able to run as fast as you could to get as far as you could, and she couldn't do that barefoot. She strapped them around her ankles and got to her feet, dusting herself, before she went about finding her way along the outer wall of the house, until she knew where she was and she moved toward the main gates.

"Miss Bei Fong!" she almost _felt_ the guards stiffening to her father's standards, as one of them, Lee, addressed her.

Toph raised a hand to him, or at least toward where she thought he was. "Calm down, Lee; I'm not going to rat on you for not standing like a statue," she managed a teasing tone. "Open the gates," she lifted a hand and ran a soft fingertip over her eyelid. She adjusted the way her backpack of supplies hung on her shoulder.

Lee sputtered a moment. "Toph, I don't think you're supposed to-,"

"Lee, if you don't open the gates I'll tell my parents you made a pass at me, got it?" her tone darkened and she pointed in the direction of his voice.

There was a pause before Lee sighed and then called to the gatekeeper. "Open the gates!"

The sweet sound of the wrought iron gates unlatching sent shivers of relief through Toph's body, and she advanced through the gates without another word. It didn't matter where she went, as long as she got away from here. She could go to the beach, or to Katara's house, or something. The great Toph Bei Fong could survive any situation, anywhere, any time, anyway. And if she had to prove that now, so be it.

* * *

><p>When Katara woke up, she wasn't in her bedroom, but she was in a bed. A shiver took over her entire body and she curled up on her side on instinct. It was so cold; she couldn't feel her fingers and toes, and she could feel five hot water bottles stuck into the bed with her, though they did nothing. She didn't know how long she'd been asleep, but she knew the sun was shining through a window into her face.<p>

It hurt. It was so cold that she hurt.

After fifteen minutes of lying in the bed, shivering, Katara felt a sob shudder through her body, pressing her face into her pillow. How could it be this cold? Her breaths were short and shallow, and she felt them cold even in the back of her throat as she clutched one of the hot water bottles to her chest. Now she realized what Lydia had been feeling when she went to see her, and she wondered if a bath full of boiling water would be better than being curled up in the bed.

"Shh, Katara," she felt a wonderful warm hand on her forehead as she shivered. She recognized the voice as Kelly's.

Katara gasped in the cold, at the wonderful sensation of the warm hand. "I'm … c-cold," she murmured, despite the fact that Kelly probably already knew that.

"I know," Katara felt Kelly sitting down on the bed with her, "But you're going to be okay, alright? This, too, shall pass," she quoted calmly, putting and arm around Katara as best she could as the girl lay on her side, curled into a ball.

Katara would've laughed, if her lungs weren't so cold that it hurt to breathe. "I-it hurts," she reached out trembling fingers until she found Kelly's sleeve and clenched her fingers on it. Kelly pulled Katara closer, her hands rubbing on her back and arms to try to built up some heat from friction. "It … _fucking _hurts," she added, gritting her teeth.

Kelly nodded, and breathed a sigh, "I know. I know, Katara," and she looked out the window into the hallway to see Hakoda looking in, listening to a doctor talking about Katara's condition. Hakoda smiled weakly, and Kelly just looked back to Katara, focusing on building up some heat for her. She wasn't going to let Katara die. She'd find a way to help her. Katara had to make it through.

She wasn't about to lose another child.

* * *

><p>Sokka sat in the waiting room with a coffee to his lips. He took occasional sips, thinking about his baby sister. He remembered Katara teasing him about having a crush on a comic book character and it brought a sad smile to his face. Days ago, he'd have given his life for hers, though now he had Suki and a baby on the way. Ah, dammit; his mind wasn't even making sense within his own head.<p>

He gave a weak smile when Suki sat down next to him, a hand on her belly, as per usual. "Katara's awake," she told Sokka optimistically. "I thought you might want to go see her."

Sokka smiled at her, thoughtfully. "She'll be asleep again by the time we get to her. Let her sleep. If anyone can get through this, she can. Toph's already gone home," he pointed out pensively, taking a sip of his coffee before Suki took it from him and took a sip too. He didn't bother to take it back - he'd be tired anyway, no matter how much coffee he drank.

"So you want to sit in the waiting room all day?" Suki raised an eyebrow at Sokka, "I mean, I don't mind it, but we could go check up on Zuko, if we wanted to," she suggested.

Sokka laughed under his breath, "From what Ty Lee told me, he's not really all that thrilled to have visitors. Apparently he threw a plate across the room just because someone made a comment about him being 'hot'. Not that he wasn't irritable before," he added for emphasis. "But yeah, I think we'll just hang around in the waiting room."

"Hey, turn that up!" someone yelled to the nurse standing by the television on the nurse's workstation.

The nurse rolled up the volume on the television, where a man with a shaved back hairline and a braid of ebony hair over his shoulder, with some classic villain facial hair on his seedy looking face, and beady little green eyes, was sitting behind the desk of the oval office, a grin on his thin lips, a small spatter of blood visible on the dark fabric of his green robes.

Suki and Sokka began to pay attention to the news.

'_**This is your … new … commander in chief speaking, of the Dai Li Party government; that which has taken America by storm. My name is Long Feng, leader of the Dai Li Militant Government now in charge of these United States, as well as several other countries across the globe.**_

'_**All major cities are hereby informed that curfew is imposed at six PM, and once we are satisfied that it is being followed, we may move it back to nine PM. Curfew lifts at six AM; you can go to work as per usual, unless stated otherwise. Cures USA is now under Dai Li control, as are all broadcasted news stations and newspapers …**_

'_**Public schools are now under Dai Li regulation; all teachers must be approved by the Dai Li education ministers. Until teachers are approved, Dai Li educators will take over teaching roles in all public and private schools. Colleges and Universities are to follow the strict new education laws passed in the early hours of this morning. The judicial system is currently under reform. **_

'_**Have a nice day.'**_

Sokka grimaced as the nurse turned off the television, and he found himself taking Suki's hand and squeezing it, wondering what this meant for them. Would Suki dropping out even be an option anymore? Would he still be able to go to Harvard? Were people still allowed to relocate to different parts of the country? He lifted his other hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. "When did everything go ass-up?" he queried.

Suki just squeezed his hand and sighed, thinking of that ominous and almost sarcastic 'have a nice day' comment.

* * *

><p>Suki glanced around awkwardly as she walked toward where Ty Lee had mentioned Zuko's room was. Sokka wouldn't miss her if she was back quickly; she'd just told him she was going to get a snack, so he wouldn't worry. When she saw Zuko's uncle walking out of a room to speak to a doctor who led him down the hall - probably to Azula - Suki guessed she'd found her friend.<p>

She made her way toward the door Iroh had come out of, and through a window in the wall beside it, she saw Zuko on a hospital bed, with his back turned in her direction. She might not have recognized him if not for the pinkish red color of his scarred ear, shown where his sweaty black hair was pushed back from his face. She glanced around and then let herself into the room, shutting the door behind her.

Zuko stirred and rolled over to look in the direction of where the door had clicked.

Suki had thought he'd been in a quarantine room, but obviously he'd been moved once the panic at the contagiousness of the reactions died down. Zuko's eyes fluttered open and finally focused on her, as he lay crumpled against his pillows, draped with heavy sheets in an effort to sweat out the fever. Suki felt her heart lurch at the pitiful sight of him.

"How are you?" Suki asked quietly, approaching.

Zuko shut his eyes in fatigue. "How do I look?" he breathed heavily, his voice a dry rasp. He pointed tiredly to the cup on the bedside table. "Water," he murmured quietly.

Suki spotted the plastic cup and the pitcher and poured him a drink, but he reached and took the pitcher right out of her hands, forced himself to sit up and downed as much of it as he could, water spilling down his cheeks, his neck and chest, and soaking his sheets. She then handed him the cup of water and he swallowed it down in three consecutive gulps, before falling back to the bed.

There were dark circles under his eyes as he laid his head on the pillow and sighed into the hot air of the room, taking a few long breaths as if preparing to speak. Suki couldn't help but notice how he struggled to breathe; it was almost an act of speech. _'Ha-, ha-, ha-,' _he wheezed repetitively, squeezing his eyes shut as he did so.

"Have you seen the news?" Suki asked, trying to turn to a topic they could actually talk about.

Zuko shook his head slowly, "No … my uncle … says … DC got …" he cut himself off and just winced in pain.

Suki made a face. "It's not good, any way. I haven't seen Aang since before the explosion; Sokka says this 'Dai Li' party are the people Aang was running away from."

"He's probably …" Zuko coughed, "right." Then he groaned under his breath and forced out some more words, "Where's … where's Katara?" he blinked his eyes open and let his gaze fall on Suki.

Suki smiled weakly, "She's here. In the hospital."

Zuko frowned immediately, guessing she wasn't here as a visitor. He screwed up his face again; he wouldn't wish this fever on anyone. If what she was feeling was even half as bad as what he was, she had to be in agony. Now he realized why she hadn't come to see him. He shot Suki a look that asked her to tell him more, so he didn't have to speak - speech had reached the point of causing him pain.

"It hit her last night. 'Chills' doesn't even _begin_ to cover it. She's freezing in her own skin," Suki explained with a long breath, "She woke up for a while, but then she passed out again, earlier this morning. The managed to get a hot meal into her, but she's got three heavy duvets on, five hot water bottles, all the winter pajamas we piled on her last Christmas, and she's still shivering. It doesn't look good."

Zuko took this in, unable to say much. So she still could've come to see him, then, if it had hit her last night instead of straight after the explosion. He cursed himself for not having even thought about her until now, having been so preoccupied with his own illness. But was allowed to do that, right? He felt like he'd been chewed up and spat out into a frying pan - he was allowed to wallow in a little self-pity.

He drew another long breath and then spoke, his eyes shut. "Where is she?" he asked dryly.

Suki paused for a moment, and then she smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. "She's in 22-14, on the third floor."

Zuko just nodded slowly, eyes shut. Suki guessed he'd fallen asleep and decided Sokka would be getting suspicious if she didn't head back.

* * *

><p>"Dr. Peyton?" Lu Ten spoke up calmly, toward the end of the procedure; the only thing left now was to close the patient up and move her to the ICU.<p>

Dr. Peyton looked up from where a resident was moving into close up the patient, and she was drying the blood on her gloves after the caesarean section. "What is it, Scorsese?" she raised a brow, before moving toward the scrub room to scrub up, peeling her latex gloves off her skin and speaking in that southern drawl most of the male interns though was exceptionally sexy.

Lu Ten followed and reached over his head to untie his surgical cap with one hand, as the two moved from the operating room to the scrub room. He pulled his mask down so it hung around his neck. "I was wondering if there was a chance you might consider excusing me from your service for the rest of the shift - I mean, it's nearly over anyway, and everything's starting to calm down, finally-,"

Peyton scoffed a laugh, "You gotta lot to learn. You may have 'magic hands' - truth is, I really don't care - but you and I both know you're lackin' in my department. You need all the time you can get on my service," she smirked at him, running her hands under the cool water.

"True, but I don't plan to go into obstetrics or gynecology anyway, so …"

Shauna Peyton (daw-cta Shaw-nah Pay-tonne) rolled her eyes and dismissed this, "What's so important you gotta get off work early anyhow, Scorsese?"

Lu Ten smiled gingerly, "My cousins are here with reactions to the toxin, and I haven't really had a chance to see them. I wanted to check up on them before late rounds."

Peyton didn't have to ask why he couldn't check on them after rounds; visiting hours were over after rounds. She breathed a sigh. "Interns ain't sposed to pick their specialties. You _need _to clock more hours on my service. Even residents hafta clock a certain amount'a OBGYN hours. You're a smart kid; you should know this. You should also know if I was any oth'r attendin', I'd have ya in the pit for a _week_ for askin' a favor."

Lu Ten nodded, really not wanting to resort to brownnosing. "I know. But it really is a family emergency," he tried.

"Nah," Peyton shook her head, "It ain't. That'sa thing, see, it _ain't. _Your cousins are fine, so long as they got their folks, or whoever they got, what-have-ya … it's for y'own peace'a mind th'you wanna go n'see 'em. Go prep my patient, Scorsese."

Lu Ten smacked his hand down on the counter before he could stop himself. "Dr. Peyton, I'm hardly going to be an asset to you in your OR if my _peace of mind _is compromised. And the toxin could very well kill them. If it were _your_ brother or sister or fuck-knows-what, you'd get leave off work to go and sit with them by their deathbed - and it _could be _their deathbeds they're lying on right now!" he seethed furiously, unable (and unwilling) to hold his tongue, "_And, _if you were _any other attending, _you would have the common decency-,"

Peyton growled under her breath, "I _**ain't**_ gonna ask you again, Scorsese - go and _prep_ my damn _patient_!" she turned her head to glare at him through narrow eyes, stamping one of her shoes on the hard floor of the scrub room, her hands foamed up with disinfectant soap clenching into fists.

Lu Ten drew a long breath and grabbed at his neck, pulling his surgical mask off by tugging the string and front at once. "No, ma'am," he frowned, turning and grabbing the door handle before storming out of the room.

* * *

><p>As the night fell, the shivering got worse. The first day had been hard enough, but by nine o' clock, Katara knew this first night would be so painful she wouldn't be able to sleep. She'd have to stay up in a half-sleep, suffering the pain that the shivers and chills brought. She knew she had to be right; that her reactions had been triggered when the moon rose, and now they were worse, since it was up again.<p>

Katara briefly thought about Zuko, and whether his pain got better at night instead of worse. Aang had said 'firebenders' had something to do with the sun. She resolved that whatever relief the night might have brought Zuko was well deserved after what she'd heard about his painful fever. She wished now that she'd gone to see him - who knew when this would pass?

Visiting hours had long ended, and Katara desperately wished she would just pass out already. Her pain was getting worse, not better. It was so cold she had an ice-cream headache, and she hadn't eaten anything since that big dinner Kelly had cooked for her family, so her stomach was growling too. What she wouldn't give for something hot to eat right now …

Katara grasped her duvet closer to her body as a larger shiver quaked her whole body. Anyone passing would've thought it a convulsion. She fought with herself not to cry again. Yes, it hurt, but she couldn't cry. Crying would only wet her face and make her colder. She had to stay as warm as possible. Katara brought a shaking knuckle to her mouth and bit into it, hard to keep her teeth from chattering. She drew blood with one of her canines.

And then there was a sensation over her shoulder of incalculable warmth, seeping through her. It didn't stop the shivering, but it did a hell of a lot more than anything else had all day. Katara felt this vague warmth register in her mind as a hand on her frozen shoulder. She'd have looked, but her shivers held her rigidly in place.

"You're freezing," came a soft, raspy voice, quickly followed up with a rough and uneven cough of an inhale.

Katara forced her eyes open at Zuko's voice, her teeth clenched on her knuckle. "Z-z …" she stopped herself. He wasn't supposed to be here. He was supposed to be in bed, _resting, _not here with her. Her brows were already knit together in her pain, so she couldn't frown any harder, but she didn't stop either, despite how _good _that warmth felt on her shoulder.

Zuko supported his weight against the rail of Katara's hospital bed, that dizzy weakness returning to him where he stood - if what he was doing could be considered standing. She was so wonderfully cool and cold under his hand, Zuko mused, breathing hard now from the length of the walk here. Obviously he'd had to put his shirt back on to walk up - if someone caught him sneaking around a hospital in nothing but his jeans, the might get the wrong impression.

The walk had been treacherous. He didn't think he could've managed it in the daytime, when it had been hottest. He'd used the night to his advantage. The nurses on the floor where his room was were probably freaking out over their missing patient, but he'd had to see Katara and that was that. But now Katara was here, shivering uncontrollably, and he was caught between wanting to harness that cool sensation, and wanting to warm her up.

So it seemed only the logical solution to climb into the bed with her.

Katara gasped out when he lifted the duvet, as what little heat she'd built up left her. Zuko struggled to hop up onto the bed - it was higher than most, and smaller, and he was extremely weak as of yet - but he did, scooted closer to Katara, dropped the duvet, and then went about wrapping her up in his arms, his chest pressed to her back. She was so deliciously cool to the touch … and she made a soft, relieved kind of noise in her throat once enveloped in his warmth.

Zuko's hot, heavy breaths bounced off Katara's frozen cheek like heaven as he wheezed. "This … really … isn't all that romantic," he pointed out dryly, breathing hard between sentence components, a desperate thirst scratching in the back of his throat.

Katara moaned quietly and shook her head as best she could, "D-doesn't m-ma-matter," she murmured through chattering teeth, "so … warm …" the corners of her mouth tilted up in a blissful smile at the wonderful warmth he emanated. Zuko's gasping breaths seemed to be painful to him, and that made Katara hurt for him, but they felt so wonderfully warm on her cheek …

Zuko smiled slightly and squeezed her in his arms. "Mm," he heard a tiny, high-pitched noise coming from his throat and then swallowed as if to stop further ones from coming out. Katara gave a shivering laugh at the noise, as if it were the cutest thing she'd ever heard. He couldn't stand the way his heat was bouncing back at him under the heavy duvets, but she needed the warmth, so he put up with it. And besides, her coolness made up for most of it anyway.

Katara shut her eyes and thought about that little moment in the empty classroom, before everything had gone haywire. "Z-Zuko," she began, feeling her own frozen thumb grazing over Zuko's hand, where his arm was draped over her waist, "I-I love you too," she whispered in a quiet, small voice, tilting her neck somewhat to get more of that heat from his breaths.

Zuko smiled despite his own intense heat, and put a kiss to her cool skin.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I kick ass, don't I? Awesome Zutara fluffiness combined with awesome Urzai badassness and Sukka goodness … mmm … yum. This chapter was inspired by my decision to make myself one of Zuko's wonderful ice-cream sodas with the sprinkles. I was right. You really can choke on those. HAK. But nonetheless, they're very very yummy. **

**Lydia, Aidan and Kelly need more parts. Sorry for the FAIL of a season promo. It was nowhere near as good as the one I did for Season 2. Fail. I hope I can make it up to you! Title lyrics are from the Eagles' 'Hotel California'. Love you guys! XXX Review!**


	3. A Phantom To Lead You In The Summer

When Katara woke up, the sun was shining into the room and her shivers had ceased for the moment. Maybe it really was worse at night than it was in the day. For her anyway. Zuko probably couldn't say the same for himself, she noticed; he was clutching her to his chest, and the duvets were pushed away, and he'd begun to sweat again. She found her brow furrowing, and she struggled to roll over in his grasp to face him. His eyelids fluttered over his closed, golden eyes.

She frowned and pulled her shaking hand up through the duvet to put to the burning skin under his jaw, where heat jumped with his pulse. He whimpered slightly at the cool of her touch, and hugged her tighter. His voice cracked as he managed words. "I should go," he murmured in exhaustion, "Before … someone … realizes … I'm not … in my room."

Katara wanted to tell him he was in no shape to be up and about, but she answered only with a tiny whine of protest, putting her cool forehead to his sweaty one. Zuko's eyes opened, slowly, and they shared a look that may or may not have exhibited that they considered sharing a kiss, but as they were, Zuko imagined he was grossly sweaty - he resolved to have a cold shower as soon as possible - and Katara had only been able to spill a few choice words past pained, swollen, bluish lips in the last twenty four hours.

Instead, they just drew long breaths of contentment.

Eventually, Lu Ten showed up breathing hard, having spent all night looking for his cousin in a panic to find him before morning rounds. If a nurse discovered he was missing on rounds, when they found him, he'd probably have gotten locked into his room, or worse, gotten cuffed to the bed - he'd already been acting _tempered_, from what he'd heard. Lu Ten helped Zuko back to his room.

Kelly and Hakoda were the first to visit Katara that morning, before having to go to work, and Kelly had brought a covered Tupperware container of hot sausage casserole - having found Kya's recipe book in their kitchen - and Katara all but inhaled the meal. Hakoda and Kelly sat, smiling, with Katara, talking and chatting, despite that Katara could only speak a single word each minute or two, somehow getting on with an interesting conversation on sailboats. Apparently the family had had one before Sokka'd been born.

Sokka showed up at nine o' clock, munching on a sausage and egg McMuffin from McDonalds. Katara, having not eaten anything other than the casserole in the past thirty-two hours, gave him the puppy-dog look and successfully conned him out of his hashbrowns. The brother and sister ended up having a one-sided conversation about baby names, prams, cots, boys and girls, trust funds and the Superbowl. Katara managed to get her words out, to ask him to get an ice-cream soda (with sprinkles) for Zuko, and her brother complied.

Aang showed up around two, already having a heated argument with himself over how stupid he was. Apparently Toph was missing, and it was all his fault, and something about her not being able to see, and it all ended with him groaning out loudly. Her voice beginning to return, Katara told him Toph wasn't one to hold grudges, and that she just needed time. Aang sighed, nodded, told her he had to get back to work - whatever that meant.

Then, completely out of the blue, Lydia Roberts showed up.

Katara was just lying in bed, minding her own business, shivering periodically, when Lydia's Liz Hurley voice drawled out a 'Morning, Marina' at her from the doorway. Katara rolled over to face the door and frowned at Lydia, who was bundled up in a thick, purple, leopard-print bed robe to her ankles, and the fuzziest of pink slippers. "You look like hell," Lydia pushed her brows up, sticking her hands into the pockets of her robe.

Katara moaned under her breath; "How ... did you _survive_ it?" she complained, her face screwing up miserably. She wondered how long it had taken for Lydia to get better - how long it would take for her chills and shivers to dissipate. Lydia was up and about, and only slightly paler than usual, though she still looked exhausted.

"Cheer up," Lydia strolled toward Katara, "It gets better after a few days. I'm actually only here because my mother thought I was dying when I told her I couldn't feel pain anymore," Lydia gave a tiny smile at the thought of just how much her mother worried about her. Katara caught this smile and frowned bitterly.

Katara gave a wheezing kind of breath from pained lungs. "Great," she mumbled. "There a reason you came?"

Lydia nodded. "Yes, actually," she drew nearer and drew some folded papers from inside her robe, "I stole these from my mum's office. It's her research on the elemental alleles." She come toward Katara, gripped Katara's shoulder and helped her into a sitting position, showing her the papers. A lot of it was text; written word, theories, evidence for theories …

"I have no idea what any of this says," Katara blinked lethargically.

Lydia shook her head, "No, you won't. Let me explain," she flipped to a second page and showed Katara the alleles all rowed up in sets of two. "These are alleles," she pointed to one set in particular, "That's the elemental allele. These are my test results - the genes I have in those alleles are an 'N' and an 'AQ'.

"The 'AQ' is the 'waterbending' gene - I've spoken to your bald friend already about it. My mother's research had assumed that only people homozygous for a single bending gene - for example, having two 'AQ's - would be able to manipulate their element." Lydia then took a step back and grabbed the cup of water on Katara's bedside table, before pouring it into her hand.

Most of the water splashed onto the floor, but a small amount stayed in her palm. The concentration wrote itself on Lydia's face, and then slowly, that small amount of water in her palm lapped, formed a ball, and rose up about an inch, in a tiny glass-like ball.

Then it fell and splashed to the floor.

"But, that's obviously incorrect. I have an 'N' - a non-bending gene - yet I'm able to bend water. So we tested my mother, to see where I got my 'AQ' gene, and it turned out she didn't have one." Lydia made a face, hoping Katara was following her.

Katara raised a brow. "So you got it from your dad?"

Lydia shook her head. "No. My mother's alleles came back 'N' and 'NQ'. We didn't know what 'NQ' was - for a while it was just 'the mystery gene' - but then we discovered it was a recessive form of the 'AQ' gene, where as 'AQ' in it's 'AQ' form, is a dominant form. Those who carry a dominant 'AQ' gene can waterbend, just as a person with a 'PY' gene can bend fire, a person with a 'TE' can earthbend-,"

"Alright, alright, I think I get it," Katara shook her head and raised a cold, shaking hand to shut Lydia up. Who'd have thought Lydia could be so nerdy? Her head was about to explode with all this random crap Lydia was talking about. "So what, should I get blood tests or something, to figure out what this is?" she asked dryly.

Lydia grimaced, "Couldn't test you if I wanted to. The new Dai Li government has taken over Cures USA, and the lab in my house isn't equipped for blood testing. Besides, we don't need to test you to know what you are. You've got at least one dominant aqua gene, whatever the other one is. Right now, I think it's best that we figure out how to move forward with the Dai Li around."

Assuming Lydia was talking about a full-scale rebellion against the Dai Li, and a way to take back the country, Katara snapped, "And I would know that, then?"

"In the absence of your bald friend, yes."

Katara rolled her eyes and then squeezed them shut. "Right now I think we just wait until news is posted on when we're supposed to go back to school. I'll talk to Aang, and Zuko - they should have a few rough ideas about how to move forward. For now, you should go home and find out all you can about putting together a deactivation toxin."

"What?" Lydia stared, "Do you know what kind of asset these abilities will be when fighting the Dai Li?" she hissed darkly, being sure nobody could hear her but Katara.

"I do," Katara replied tiredly, "But it's extremely dangerous for every other Tom, Dick and Harry to have superhuman abilities. Can you imagine a psycho like - say, for instance - Jonathan Prescott, with powers? Inmates are going to get out of prison, and insane asylums won't be able to keep in their patients - did you hear what the Psych ward on the sixth floor has been going through since the bomb went off?"

Lydia looked shamefaced, seeming to have really been enjoying her powers until Katara had said that.

"And at the least," Katara sighed heavily, "it'll be something good to have against the Dai Li. I have a feeling they're useless without their bending."

Lydia pursed her lips. "Alright. I've still got a sample of the activation serum, so that might be useful in putting together a deactivation one."

And then Lydia left, still looking extremely disappointed. Katara didn't care. If Aang's words were anything to go by, the world was on thin ice as of yet. Lydia was already able to bend a droplet - what were firebenders able to do? Light a spark? Even a spark could start a fire. Exhaustion caught up with Katara and she fell hard and heavy into a deep sleep.

* * *

><p>"<em>Azula," comes a soft whisper.<em>

_The child turns on her heel and blinks in the dimly lit corridor. Everything is deathly silent - so silent she's scared. First she takes a calculated, cool step toward the dim light down the dark hall, and then a loud, terrible screech explodes behind her and she's running, screaming. She hopes that whisper is down the hall, waiting to grab her up and take her away from this place._

_Azula's screams somehow manage to get louder. "Mom! MOM!" she yells, tears spilling down her youthful face, her shiny red shoes clapping on the black marble floor as she runs, each step echoing in her head like a thunderclap. The thing behind her has talons, and it claws for her, tearing through some of the red-dyed denim of her sundress as she sprints._

_In the dim light up ahead, she can see someone else running in the same direction. She screams as loud as she can, grabbing out to catch the person. They look over their shoulder as they run, and Azula sees her brother panicking at the sight of the monster so close behind her. Azula realizes with some relief that she's gaining on Zuko, but also that the thing behind is gaining on **her.**_

_Zuko somehow speeds up, and then he disappears into the dim light at the end of this never-ending hall, into the light that Azula doesn't seem to be able to reach. She swears to herself that her mother must be in that light, and if she just runs a little faster, she can get there. If she just keeps running, she'll get there. The thing with the talons grabs her around the ankle, and she falls forward onto her belly, her hands smacking on the floor._

"_No! NO! Mom! MOM!" Azula cries out, fingernails gripping the floor as she is dragged backward into the darkness. The light is being dragged away too, as she recedes into the darkness. She rolls onto her back, twisting her ankle to do so, and kicks out with her free leg. When she gets closer, she sits up and tries to claw at it, wishing she had talons of her own._

_Then she falls back again and she's staring at the light going out in the darkness. She reaches for it … and then it's just black. Pain explodes in her legs as the creature devours them between huge teeth, crushing her with gargantuan claws. Azula tries to scream, but her lungs are pierced, and she just feels a squeak in her throat and hears a wheeze from her mouth._

_Then she feels nothing._

Azula drew a breath in her sleep, her brows furrowed. Ty Lee sat next to her, watching tiredly. Mai stood on one side of the room, staring at the floor pensively. Outside the room, Azula's uncle Iroh and her mother Ursa were signing discharge papers for both her and her brother; the hospital needed more space for delayed reactions coming in. Mai and Ty Lee occasionally exchanged glances, both hoping that returning home might spur some healing in their friend.

* * *

><p>Ozai wondered if the gardener knew what kind of fertilizer he was scattering on the acres surrounding the mansion, as he stood near the tall window in his study, smoking a cigar pensively. Zhao, his driver and most loyal butler, was out running errands revolving around the bodies the two had cremated the night before - for example, being sure anyone who'd seen or heard anything would stay silent about it - and yet, he still worried that the Dai Li would exact revenge.<p>

He turned and approached his desk. He didn't need this right now - for the Dai Li to be targeting him directly. Ozai had enough on his mind. Sooner or later, either he or his wife or brother would have to explain more to Azula and the boy, in regards to their fevers and powers over their elements, and Ursa was unable even to think on the idea that one (or, Agni forbid, both) of them might not survive the fever.

Ozai pulled his chair from his desk and sank into it, propping an elbow on the rosewood in front of him and dragging in a long breath of smoke as he recalled the fever he'd experienced upon his own activation, years ago. He'd been a young twenty, training under his own brother, by Azulon's hand. He came from a long line of firebenders - tradition kept it so. Iroh had reluctantly agreed to his father's whims, and sat with Ozai through the fever.

That, of course, was the reason the toxin was only weakly affecting him now, he assumed quite correctly.

His mind turned to the boy. If Azulon had still been alive, he'd have had him activated too, by now. Ozai cursed himself for not having done so- no. No, he cursed his own indecision. He had been undecided on whether to activate the boy - his own chosen heir. Azula didn't want to be a lawyer, and Ozai had to respect that. Azula had already secretly devoted herself to military strategy.

Ozai knew, however; secrets were never kept from him for long.

But now everything was changed. The way things were going, a rebellion would soon oppose the Dai Li, and the Dai Li would beat it down. The only chance against the Dai Li now was to fight them with master benders, and those who could bend had no way of learning to control their element. Ozai wore a deep frown now.

A firebender was only dangerous without control. Iroh would teach his children to bend. By request, Iroh would do that much - if only just enough to keep them from hurting themselves and those around them. He would not have uncontrolled firebenders under his roof.

"Sir," Zhao stood in the doorway, "Iroh is here."

Ozai's frown only deepened. "Send him in."

* * *

><p>"<em>Just be prepared, okay, son? It's not pretty," a voice came from beyond the wrappings over both Zuko's eyes - they'd had to wrap it like that, despite that only one of his eyes were injured. Zuko recognized the voice as his doctor - a kindly, middle-aged man called Theodore Chaplin who would always take time out of his lunch hour to check up on the boy.<em>

_Zuko could feel the wrappings coming undone and he swallowed hard, hands clenching on the sheets under him. The weeping wound over his left eye stung as the pressure on it loosened and the thirteen-year-old clenched his teeth in preparation. He felt his uncle's familiar, rough hand take one of his and squeeze, and Zuko squeezed back, grateful for his uncle's presence._

_He'd rather stay in this artificial blindness than see what his father had done to his face. _

'_What happened?' he remembered Dr. Chaplin asking when he'd first gotten to the hospital, weeks before this day. Zuko tried his best to remember, but couldn't. Instead he just shook his head and acted as if he would rather just not talk about it. Ozai had been yelling, and then shouting, and grabbing him roughly, throwing him about - it hadn't been the first time the old man had put his hands on him, so he'd just stayed quiet and waited for it to pass._

_The last layer of the bandaging came away and cool air hit his tender flesh. Zuko inhaled a hissing gasp through clenched teeth and squeezed his uncle's hand a little tighter, his eyes still shut. He wasn't sure he remembered how to open his eyes after so many weeks. Then, slowly, he tried to open his good eye while keeping the other shut, but such control was beyond him. Both eyes opened, slowly, one wider than the other._

"_Oh-," Dr. Chaplin winced - it was the first time Zuko had laid eyes on him - and turned his head away, and this only made Zuko feel worse._

_Iroh sat at Zuko's right side, so he couldn't quite see it yet, but when Zuko turned his face to Iroh, the angry, dark pink scar was prominent over a large portion of the left side of his face. A minimal one percent of his body was scarred - this was enviable by the other people in the burns unit - but it was still nearly a quarter of his face. It was a mark on the youthful, innocent face the boy had always had._

_Iroh smiled reluctantly. "It isn't so bad," he reassured Zuko; the boy smiled weakly and briefly._

_Zuko ran his tongue over his lips and swallowed at the dry feeling in his throat. "Ca- can I have a mirror?" he looked up to Dr. Chaplin, who was staring at him with a soft look of concern on his face. The staring made him uneasy, but he was more concerned with wanting to see it. He had to see it. His face hurt, and the bandages would have to go back on, but he had to see it before that happened._

_Chaplin nodded solemnly and reached for hand mirror he'd entered the room with, and slowly passed it to the kid, while the boy's uncle wore a false smile to reassure him. Zuko blinked reluctantly before turning the mirror and finding his own reflection flashing back at him. It nearly dropped from his hand and he cringed in horror at it, willing himself not to cry. Dr. Chaplin swallowed and asked quietly, "How did your dad do that?" he shook his head in awe. Burns weren't ever that concentrated … there was no way …_

_Zuko stared into the mirror, his mind racing back to the night this had happened to him. Ozai shouting … Azula crying … Consuela calling 911 … Ozai throwing an arm toward him … and then … just fire. Fire, everywhere. He could remember anything else, just fire. His mind jumped to the simplest, most believable conclusion he could think of. "The gas hob," he said quietly, trying to believe it himself, "he … threw me on the gas hob," he repeated with a dry swallow._

_Chaplin just shook his head and winced again._

_Eventually, Zuko too would come to believe the lie - because there was no other way it could've happened. It wasn't really all that hard to believe - they'd been fighting in the kitchen, and Consuela had been cooking, too. The hob hadn't been on, but how hard would it have been for Ozai to just turn a knob, find a lighter and … yes. Yes, that was the truth. It had to be the truth._

_It had to._

* * *

><p>Zuko threw himself into a sitting position and grabbed his own head, breathing hard. "Fuck," he whispered grittily, fingernails scraping at his scalp. The nightmares were getting worse - at first they had been dragons; dragons, and strange, demon-like creatures beating them down. The dreams had subsided as he realized the dragons were not to fear, and last night, as he slept beside Katara, he'd dreamt only of falling through the sky toward a sea of fire.<p>

The nightmares were getting steadily worse. He'd never wanted to remember the unveiling of his scar, ever again. The moment he'd first seen his reversed image in a mirror was a stain on his memory, and nothing else. It was hard to forget something your own mind was trying to remind you about. He grabbed one of the corners of the sheets up and wiped at the sweat on his face.

"I need a shower," he told himself aloud, unable to decipher within his own head what thoughts were his and what thoughts were part of the fever. Voicing his own thoughts helped him figure this out. His mother sometimes thought aloud, and he found it both annoying and endearing, but right now it was helpful to him. He groggily swung his legs out from under the sheets.

A cool hand took his shoulder and helped him to his feet. "I agree," his uncle's voice reassured him, in that kind voice he'd heard in his dreams.

Zuko took the first four steps on his own and then found his weight depending on his uncle's support. "Thank you, Uncle," his fingers wound into the cloth on Iroh's shoulder.

* * *

><p>The Dai Li could stop people from moving around after six in the evening, but they could do nothing to stop a British helicopter from landing on the helipad atop the Roberts' mansion on Milton Avenue, on the west side of the city, at seven forty-two in the evening. Being a lot larger than bullets, they lost trajectory after a few seconds in the air and went downward.<p>

Alistair greeted Katherine on the rooftop, as his bodyguards - Joel and Frederick - flanked him formally. His mother had insisted he have guards the second his symptoms had worn off. He didn't really mind - Joel was pretty easy to get on with, and Frederick kept to himself mostly - but it did sometimes complicate things. He suspected his mother had hired them to spy on him, too; to listen in on his phone calls to Lydia.

"Wonderful to see you, Alistair!" Katherine called over the noise of the helicopter's rotating blades as Alistair's pilot switched off the engine.

Alistair smiled and pushed his glasses up his nose. "You too, Katherine!" he squinted in the wind, "Though I wish it was on better terms!" he added, shooting the older woman a weary look of worry and anxiety, as they moved to the door leading down into the building. "These are Joel and Fred - mum's hired them to keep an eye on me!"

Katherine laughed. "Lovely woman, your mother - even if she is a tad eccentric!" she patted the nineteen-year-old on the upper arm as one of the butlers standing near the door opened it for them and they moved into the warmth of the mansion, the wind outside just a whistling memory that had left their clothes and hair a little ruffled.

Once they made it down the stairs into the upstairs hallway, Alistair set about pushing his hair back in the European manner, the way he - and Lydia, of course - liked it. Dull blue eyes behind small-framed glasses looked around, intrigued. "You have a lovely home, Ms. Roberts," he stated warmly, and began to say more, "A wonderful aesthetic-," but something grabbed him from behind, cutting off his words.

Lydia had slipped her arms around his waist from behind and was giggling into the back of his suit jacket. "Hello!" she chirped, not knowing what else to say to him.

A broad grin found its way onto Alistair's face as her grip loosened for him to turn and face her. If it had been possible, his smile would've grown. She was dressed rather frumpily, in pajamas - a far cry from her usual designer outfits - but to him, she looked amazing. Breathtaking. He put his hands on her shoulders. "I cannot begin to tell you how much I've missed you," he pulled her into a hug.

Lydia squeezed him around the middle and put her forehead to his chest, not caring that his bodyguards and her mother were watching, though she imagined the bodyguards were rather miffed that she'd gotten through them to hug him. If she'd been anyone else, she could've buried a knife in his back and they mightn't have been able to stop her. Incompetent fools.

Katherine smiled warmly and opened her mouth to speak, but she was cut off when Poquita yelled from downstairs that there was a phone call for her. She turned back to her daughter and future son-in-law. "I think I shall leave you two to it, then. Play nice, children," she patted both once on the shoulder and then turned for the staircase, gliding to take the phone call.

"Children indeed!" she heard Lydia exclaiming, scandalized, behind her, as she moved down the stairs.

"Oh, shush, you big purple marshmallow," Alistair was saying, referring to her bed robe.

Lydia made a loud 'goodness gracious' noise and Katherine could imagine her putting her hands on her hips. "I'll have you know I've been _deathly_ ill!"

Katherine plucked the phone from its cradle on the rosewood table near the bottom of the stairs. "Hello?" she blinked, cradling the receiver between her cheek and shoulder, lifting a hand to inspect her nails - her manicure would need renewing soon. She'd completely ruined it with the hot water baths for Lydia, and various other stress-related vices.

"_Dr. Katherine Roberts?"_

Katherine breathed a sigh, "Yes, that's me. You're not from the Dai Li, are you? I've already told you, I shan't speak to you commies-,"

"_No, ma'am - I'm with the Dahlia Coast Coroner's Office. I must request that you come to identify a cadaver - we believe it to be Dr. Richard Mason, your work partner._

"_Ma'am?_

"_Hello?"_

* * *

><p>"<em>Mngh …" Katara heard a shuddery, mumbling kind of breath from her lips, feeling her face pressed to rough brick stone. She blinked her eyes opened and saw the wall, then blinked a while longer in a vague recognition. <em>'I've been here before' _her mind told her adamantly, but she wasn't so sure about that … it was kind of familiar … but …_

_In the haze of her grogginess, a high-pitched wailing sound increased in volume until she could hear it rather clearly, if not through a mental fog that made it sound as if it were underwater. Katara pressed her forehead to the brick and used her own weight to push from it, to look in the direction of the wailing._

"_Would you **shut **that thing** up?**"the man in black was yelling, reaching down in a fell swoop with one arm, a claw-like hand grasping something by soft flesh._

_Katara realized where she'd seen this before. 'No. No, no no no, no! NO! I don't want to be here! No! No no no!' she felt her eyes widening as she swallowed hard, trying to manipulate herself to look away. She couldn't - she was frozen like stone, in place. **No, no, no! Please, no! **She screamed inside her own head, duct-taped hands clenching, fingernails drawing blood from palms._

"_No! **Please!**" the young mother pleaded weakly, a kind of half-scream, futility and exhaustion weighing her words._

_Then … that feral, primal growl as his arm moved, and the mother of the baby shouting - **screaming **-_

"_**NO!"**_

_- and Katara was crying; sobbing, waling, moaning out desperate pleas for something to take her away from here. She herself couldn't understand what she was saying. It was like she was watching herself, through her own eyes, true, but only a mere observer in her own body. She could do nothing but stare and cry and scream and plead … 'please, please, take me away from here! Please! Please! I'll do anything! Please!'_

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I love Alistair more than I thought I would. **

**This, I believe to be appropriately named 'A Phantom To Lead You In The Summer', from the MCR song 'The Black Parade'. I'm really enjoying naming the chapters, like I did with LILABOC. LILAL is coming great. I can see LILALS, however (the steamy sex scenes one) being put off until post-series. I'm too busy to do all the sex scenes for you guys, ya bunch-a perves! :D**

**Katara's nightmare was the result of me not knowing how else to end the chapter. Katara didn't really handle how she felt about the kidnapping, after it happened - she really kind of repressed a lot of it, I think. So yeah. We might see more aftermath from that.**

**Also, the Dai Li are about to upscale their project, BIG TIME. Also, you'll get to see what's up with Aidan.  
><strong>

**REVIEW!**


	4. Be My Mirror, My Sword And Shield

Sokka woke up early, with an arm and a leg having been pushed from under the sheets of his bed. This had happened a few nights in a row, after Suki had moved into his bedroom, but it had stopped, and he was literally falling off the mattress, as it was. He scooted back onto the bed, pushing against another body - which he had guessed to be Suki - and then moved to sit up, reaching for the lamp.

"Suki, you gotta stop taking over the damn bed-," he spoke up, switching the lamp on and turning his head toward … Oh.

As it happened, Katara had climbed in with them in the middle of the night, and was cuddled up to Suki, under one of her arms. Sokka managed a weak smile at the way the two interacted; he'd asked what was up, when Suki had told the nurse in charge of checking on Katara that she was there to see her 'sister'. Suki had just told him that they were sisters now, because of him, and the Cookie.

This wasn't the first time this had happened, either. Since coming home from the hospital, Katara had ended up in their bed twice, and had fallen asleep on the couch with her father at one point, in front of the television. Sokka knew about the nightmares, but really - this was kind of ridiculous, sharing a bed with his sister and his girlfriend.

"Sshh," Suki murmured, her eyes still shut, "She's finally gone to sleep," she explained quietly, a hand tracing a slow circle on Katara's back.

Sokka put a hand on his sister's head and smoothed back some of her hair from her face, with a quiet sigh. "Breakfast?" he smiled tiredly; Katara's illness had taken a toll on him over the past week.

Suki nodded, eyes still shut. "For all of us?" she smiled, eyes still closed, referring to herself, the Cookie, and Katara.

Sokka got up, got dressed, and moved to the door. "I'll bring something up in about an hour - to give Katara a chance to catch some sleep."

When Suki failed to give a reply, he smiled again and figured she was asleep too.

* * *

><p>Toph had curled into the fetal position; wherever she was, she knew that much. She couldn't hear any voices, like she had while walking the streets, but in the distance, she could hear cars, going pretty fast. She was probably close to the highway, she guessed. Most of the food in her backpack was gone, and she was starting to get hungry, to be honest. But she wouldn't go back.<p>

Not now. Not ever.

Aang could go and screw himself. Her parents too.

If she could figure out how to maneuver her phone without seeing, she'd call Sokka and just blurt everything; she knew it. So it was for the best that she couldn't. Toph Bei Fong didn't get all sappy. Toph Bei Fong had been raised with stature; with perfect ladylike manners. She wasn't about to break down. She'd already done that twice since the bomb had ripped her whole life apart, and it wasn't going to happen again.

Toph tapped a fingertip to the face of her watch. It had been eight days. On the second day, after the bomb had gone off, she'd left the hospital, and her parents' home, and run away. She'd broken the glass on the watch so she could tell the time by touching a fingertip to the moving hands. It was now sometime around 9AM, Thursday morning.

Once again, she rummaged through her backpack for some food, only to find the rejects of what she'd already eaten; bread crusts, the discarded majority of an iced cupcake (she'd just picked the icing off), some birdseed (not actual birdseed but that muesli shit her mother ate), and the last doughnut hole she'd packed - the one she hadn't been able to find after eating the rest.

As she was eating the last remains of edible matter in the immediate area, a low rumbling caused her to frown hard and grip her stomach pensively. Was that her _stomach _growling like that? True, she hadn't had an actual meal in a week, but that was beside the point! Stomachs didn't growl like _that. _Not in the real world. Maybe in cartoons-

Toph got up to her feet and listened hard, as the rumbling sound got louder, and she could even feel the grumbling under her feet, muted by her shoes of course, but still quite apparent. _'Calm down, Toph. It's nothing major. You probably just stumbled into a construction yard, or something,' _she tried to reason with herself, but this was nothing like machinery.

And she'd have known if she was in the open air, right? She was in some sort of … cave? Maybe? She'd found shelter, anyway. And it probably was a cave, too; it was all mud under her feet, by the sludgyness of it under her flip-flops, and the walls were kind of rocky; mostly stones, with dirt between. The stones felt nice under her hands, she noted, keeping a hand to the cave wall.

She frowned bitterly, raising her free hand and forming a fist. She had been able to type a hundred words a minute, and decodes a basic encryption in less than a minute. She'd been a computer _genius. _And now look at her. Blind. She'd spent years learning a trade she could now never employ. Mastering it. Refining it. And now **this**? She squeezed her fist tighter and clenched her jaw, pulling her arm back and throwing it toward the stone wall.

This would destroy her hand. She'd break her knuckles against the stone. But she didn't care. Fuck it. What good was it to her if she couldn't type? If she couldn't see the goddamn computer screen? It was completely fucking useless!

"God damn it!" she heard herself yelling, as her hand exploded into the rock.

A shock jolted through her entire body, and she felt that strange feeling of gravity in her head again - as if the earth itself was calling to her, pulling her in. She could sense every crease and crevice in the stone before her. The sensation, she knew, was so much subtler than she felt it. Nothing could be this concentrated.

It was like the rumbling, before, under her feet. Every nerve in the earth was hers to experience - to _feel. _It was nothing like seeing with her eyes … but … she could _sense_ her surroundings. That had to be it. It was the closest she could come to explaining it, even if only to herself.

She clenched her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut, ready for the pain to come. Except that it didn't. Well, it did, but it didn't hurt as much as it should have. It felt like she was punching a brick through a pillow. Her hand hurt, true, but it wasn't mangled, like it should have been. She took a few stumbling steps backward, blind eyes wide in wonder.

"No way …" she swallowed hard, "No fucking way …"

Slowly, hesitantly, she reached out for the stone. And felt a depression in it; a large dent, larger than just her fist, but an actual dip in the stone, six inches deep, circular in shape and two feet in diameter. Toph traced her fingers over it again and again, and felt a slow grin spreading on her face. The grin grew and she formed another fist, ears and fingertips tuned to find that vibration again.

Maybe she wasn't completely useless after all.

* * *

><p>Aang paced back and forth, his cell phone forgotten amongst the snack wrappers and litter that had collected on the floor over the last few days. Toph was dead. Legally, she was missing. The Dai Li had taken over the law enforcement in the city, and even they had announced her legally missing, even though they'd done nothing to look for her. Too busy taking over the world, he guessed.<p>

She'd been gone for seven days. Blind and alone.

His sanity had been deteriorating for those past seven days, possibly longer, and why shouldn't it have been? Tricia and Lisa, Aang's foster parents, were dead and missing, respectively, Toph was probably dead too, Katara and Zuko were riddled with nightmares, unable to stay on their feet for more than ten seconds, the Dai Li government were quickly turning America into a dictatorship, and he was the only person with the power to fix it.

Zuko honestly didn't blame Aang for being the wreck he was right now, as he lounged back in his kingsize, having discarded the television remote on account of the fact that all the TV shows he liked were cancelled because the Dai Li had declared them 'in opposition of their 'New American' ideology' and everything else was completely depressing.

So Aang paced around the room, occasionally looking out the window and grimacing. If it had been Zuko with all that weight on his shoulder, he'd be smoking his third pack of the day right about now, he mused, watching his friend pace. "So … any ideas about what you plan to um …" Zuko paused and yawned, "… uh … do?" he sat up a little straighter.

Aang rounded on him and threw his arms up in the air. "_You_ got any ideas, Captain Asshole?"

Zuko cursed Sokka for giving him a new nickname. It sounded like this one was going to stick, too. His face clouded over and he grumbled indistinctly, before he drew a self-calming breath and returned his gaze to Aang. "No. But all things considered … I think someone needs to be thinking of ideas," Zuko straightened his back until it cracked, then he winced and reached for the cordless phone on his bedside table to intercom Consuela for a sandwich or something. "You hungry?"

"No," Aang answered dryly, then he groaned, "Trust Toph to do something so selfish at a time like this!" he grabbed his own bald head and shook it furiously, "I mean who does she thinks she is? Does she think I _need _more stress right now? What, she thinks she's doing me a favor? Gee, Toph, thanks! I could really do with a heart attack right now! While you're at it, why don't you just get me a nice paper cut and some lemon juice …"

As Aang ranted on, Zuko drowned out the rambling and continued to ring downstairs for a nice bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich on white bread (with the crusts cut off, though he'd never admit it, and would tell Aang that Consuela just did that arbitrarily) and a packet of potato chips. He'd become ravenous overnight, and was eating like crazy; possibly because of the inadvertent quitting-of-cigarettes he'd done as a result of his lighter going missing.

"… I mean, what if she's hurt, or dead, or … or …"

"Listen," Zuko raised a hand and cleared his throat, "Whatever happens to Toph is her own fault. Beyond your own crazy over-protective fit of anxiety, you know she's probably fine - maybe a little worse for wear, but not beyond normal limits. I mean, it _is_ Toph we're talking about …"

Aang stopped pacing and glared at Zuko. "You're terrible at motivational speeches," he grumbled miserably.

Zuko stuck his tongue out distastefully. "And you're a thousand year old monk-messiah, so there we go…"

With a final dark glare, Aang sank down to sit on the carpet, cross-legged, and drew in a long, calming breath.

"What are you doing?" Zuko pushed himself away from his pillows and tilted his head curiously, finding Aang's actions vaguely similar to the 'deep breathing exercises' the student counselor at school had had him doing a few years back.

"Meditating."

Zuko's frown disappeared. "Oh," he answered simply, "So … you really are an all-out … full-on … monk, then, huh?" he stated aloud, thoughtful.

Aang grunted under his breath. "Yeah, I am."

"Huh."

"Huh what?"

"Huh nothing, I'm just curious is all. What do monks do?"

Aang considered for a moment, then drew another long breath and … _"_Ommmmmmmm_…"_

Zuko raised his good eyebrow, and then through Aang's noise, queried, "What's the purpose of the 'omm' thing?" as he twirled his fingers along the tassels of his satin bed quilt in boredom, thinking briefly about school, and going back. The idea of going back to _learn _from people who'd taken the country by force was certainly daunting.

"_Ommmm…__**" **_Aang continued, louder, unwilling to let Zuko break his concentration.

"**Senior Scorsese-!" **Consuela burst into the room, stalked right past Aang and held a plate with a sandwich on it out to Zuko, snapping both of them out of their separate distractions. Aang looked up, as did Zuko, and she gestured impatiently for Zuko to take his plate, seeming to have other jobs to do around the house.

Zuko took the plate and opened his mouth to ask what was going on.

"Your mother said you got to get up - forget your food; Senior Iroh is with your sister now, but Master Ozai needs you …"

Zuko blinked incredulously - Ozai? Needing him? - And Aang did too, to a lesser extent, "What? Why? What's going on?" Zuko dropped his feet out from under the covers.

Consuela clapped her hands loudly, waking him up a little more, "It's all-hands-on-deck, Senior Zuko; Pablo and Eugene, they are in the basement getting what your father ordered, but all the other butlers, and Maria and the girls, they offered to helping too, but Master Ozai told us to go back to our jobs. They have been holding them back for now, but they keep coming, your mother asked-,"

"Who?" Zuko barked loudly, getting to his feet at the first mention of intruders, grabbing for his bed robe as the sheets flew away from him. His dizziness was catching up with him already, but his mother … his uncle, and his sister, and all the people in the house; he suddenly felt a terrible need to protect them. It felt like his duty. He looked to Aang for help, and his friend stood without even a second thought.

"The Dai Li, senior!" Consuela answered without a moment's hesitation, but the boys had already guessed at that.

Aang and Zuko exchanged hard glances, swallowed hard, and ran for the parlor.

* * *

><p>Aidan came to, eventually, with a black cloth bag still taped around his neck, over his head. A numbed, muted pain in his mouth sent shivers of pain through his body, but he was far too far from clear consciousness to be thinking of such things. He was sat in a chair, with his arms pulled back painfully behind him, and he feet pulled under the chair so that his ankles and wrists were bound together.<p>

That didn't matter anyway. The nails hammered into his kneecaps were proof of that.

Torture wasn't going to work; not on a man like him. But the Dai Li - that was what that kind Katara girl had called them - didn't know that. Aidan was unsure (and he was so on few things) as to whether this was good or bad, but he didn't (perhaps couldn't) speak. He had nothing to lose anymore, so leverage, he decided, would be useless too. He cared nothing for Daniel, or Jenny, whose name he could only now remember.

Slugger, he realized, he had kind of cared for. He had found him endearing. But he was dead now; because of him. Jenny and Daniel probably were too, at this point.

"… _Ah-vah-tarr … air-ben-d-…" _someone was speaking, in a formal tone; businesslike. Clear and perfect English, but he couldn't make it out. Maybe one of his eardrums was damaged, or broken, or something like that. What he heard, he heard through a liquid-like kind of filter. He'd heard that word, somewhere. 'Avatar'.

Avatar. Airbend.

Yeah … he could place it now.

"_I can't believe … what have I done?" _he'd whispered to the Katara girl.

And then in a calm, assuring voice, she'd answered, _"We'll fix it. We can fix it, with the Avatar's help. He's back, and he can … he can fix this."_

Warranted, she'd been in shock, from the explosion, but she'd known something. Something about this Avatar character.

A hand grabbed, first the black cloth bag, and then his face, and he groaned in fatigued pain. His mouth was bleeding; from where his piercing was (had once been) and there was blood dried on his chin, down his neck, in trails from his mouth and nose. One of his lower canine teeth was gone, too; he vaguely remembered trying to bite at the hands clutching him as they slaughtered the policemen surrounding.

The hand on his face gripped hard, and Aidan sensed someone leaning close. They breathed something first in Chinese - he recognized the voice as a woman, not the one with the formal, perfect English; he was a man - and then she spoke in clean, but plain English, _"Tell us where the Avatar is, or suffer the consequences."_

Aidan realized he was breathing hard in the dark, eyes shut, face bloody like a caged, feral beast. He shook his head weakly and stiffly. "I … I don't know! I don't know what-," he broke off and coughed up more blood, his body jerking and his fingers clenching to fists as one broken rib scraped on another in his chest cavity. He groaned out in agony.

How long had it been? How long had he been like this?

"_Tell us now, or you'll suffer more!" _the woman's voice ground out, and that hand released his face and grasped for his knees, and this time he nearly screamed.

She ripped out one of the steel nails hammered into his bloody kneecaps.

He stifled his own scream, as it echoed back at him from marble floors and solid walls, nothing more than an animal's grunt. He would endure. He could die now. If this was atonement for what he'd done, then he'd pay the price, but when death came, he would welcome it with open arms. His life was useless to him now, after the shame of what he'd spent his years inflicting on others.

Aidan clenched his teeth hard - so hard his jaw hurt - and he squeezed his eyes shut. He waited for death, and searched his mind for serenity in the meanwhile.

He sensed the woman pull back, dismayed. He may even have derived some pleasure from her unsettlement, just like his old self.

"_That's enough, I suppose, Ling," _that stately voice chuckled mirthfully; amused. _"He's a strong one."_

Aidan grunted, his teeth clenched. "You … bet your … ass I am," he would've stamped his foot, if it weren't secured to his wrist and there wasn't blood dripping down both his legs. For all the pain the nail in one knee caused, he knew it hurt more in the one without. That bitch needed some smacking around.

'_Ling; was that her name? She'd better sleep with one eye open,' _he heard a dark whisper inside his own head.

The stately one chortled again and Aidan felt the black bag being undone from around his neck. _"You either really don't know where the Avatar is, or you're just the sort of person torture does nothing to. Either way, you should know death is not what is in store for you, as much as it may comfort you to believe so."_

Aidan felt a twinge of despair at this, but he continued to listen, his pain still unbearable and causing him to twitch periodically. The bag came away and he was able to see a man with a black braid down his back, and classic evil-villain facial hair, circling his seat in a darkened room, lit only by green-tinted lamps. When he set his eyes on Ling, he was too weak to give her a death glare, but he memorized her face, just because. She was in her early thirties, he guessed, and she was beautiful; with long, silky ebony hair tied into a simple, limp ponytail, porcelain white skin and darkened gray eyes behind glasses.

"I am Long Feng," the braided one stated plainly, "and you will speak what you know about the Avatar, or the consequences … will be severe," Long Feng's face twitched with the tiny remnants of a smirk.

Aidan grunted under his breath, the smell of his own blood driving him to insanity. This was going to be a long day.

* * *

><p>Hakoda's eyes fell on the laminate flooring below him as he crossed the hallway, his ears vaguely registering the sound of Katara's puppy running up the stairs after 'Foo Foo Cuddly Poops'. Seriously; why couldn't Sokka have gotten a dog, and Katara gotten a kitten? It would've been a hell of a lot more … well, normal. He looked up and saw Kelly leaning in the doorway into the living room.<p>

He stepped closer and peered in, past her, to see Katara curled up on the couch with a blanket and a cup of cooling hot chocolate nearby, asleep with an arm draped over her cheek. The television was completely forgotten, chattering in the background, and Hakoda glanced to Kelly to see a small, warm smile on her face.

"She hasn't been awake for more than an hour at a time," Kelly turned her head to look up at him - she was shorter than Kya had been, he remembered, by perhaps two inches. "Despite the nightmares, I mean," she added. "I'm just … making observations, I guess …" and Hakoda swore he saw a tiny blush on her cheeks. Then she sighed.

Hakoda frowned for a moment and took a step back, having realized just how close they were. "Is she talking to you about the nightmares?" he asked suddenly, and then tried to backpedal awkwardly, and Kelly just smiled and shook her head thoughtfully.

"She started to, earlier, but then she fell asleep. She said they were a lot to do with Prescott."

"Yeah. I thought they might be."

Kelly put a hand on Hakoda's shoulder, and she gestured toward the kitchen. "Coffee?"

He nodded. "Please."

* * *

><p>"Fall back!" Jet called over his shoulder to Smellerbee, who agreed and repeated the order back to Longshot. His legs pushed him away from the barrage flying his way. He took cover behind a brick wall and he dropped his swords to the floor, sliding down and breathing hard; he'd had the wind knocked right out of him in the fighting.<p>

The Duke joined him behind cover. "Are you hurt?" the sophomore asked quickly.

"I'm fine," Jet picked his hookswords up and squeezed the grips, testing his own strength. "Any casualties?"

"None so far, but Longshot says we're severely outnumbered. If we don't retreat, he says we could get surrounded."

"Where's Pipsqueak?" Jet tightened the cinch around his waist, gripping the smoke pellets he'd stolen a while ago from Chemistry class and collecting them in his gloved hand.

The Duke smacked his lips, breathing hard, "He's organizing transport."

Jet leant around the wall to see the Dai Li advancing on them. "What kind of transport? Enough for _all _of us? The car's not gonna-,"

Then the horn of a loud hummer blared from down the alley the two were conversing in, cutting off Jet's words. The Duke grinned widely and pumped a fist into the air. Bright orange, big as an elephant, and enough space for a freaking army - and he supposed in a way, the Freedom Fighters _were _an army - The Duke was racing the loud monster down the alley toward them, with Longshot, Smellerbee and the others already in tow. The Duke rocked on his feet, impressed.

Jet smirked and fixed his swords to his makeshift back-holster. "Nice ride."

* * *

><p>"So," Lydia breathed out, after finishing making love to her fiancé for the eighth time since he'd arrived, and resting her chin on her hands, atop his bare, heaving chest, "why are you here, Alistair?" she moved her hands and put a kiss to his skin, and then propped her chin on her hands again.<p>

Alistair smiled momentarily, reaching for his glasses on the bedside table. "Aren't you happy to see me?"

"Of course I am, darling. But it's very unlike you to hop a plane for nothing. You hate leaving home."

"Things are bad," Alistair lifted a hand and put it on her head, his smile gone, "I had to leave, anyhow. The Dai Li were fighting in London, and mother sent me away as soon as the trouble reached us. She stayed," he sighed heavily and lifted his other hand to his brow, putting his glasses on. "I hope she's alright."

"Oh, if I know your mother, Ally, she's better than alright," Lydia reassured him quite dryly. "God help the Dai Li if they come up against her."

Alistair laughed wanly and smoothed a thumb over her blonde hair, thinking. "Anyway, I came here to see you, first of all, and because if any kind of solution for this madness is to come from anywhere, it seems only logical that it would come from Dahlia Coast; the root of the epidemic," and then he heard Lydia scoff and he blinked at her, "Why not?"

"You must be joking," Lydia shut her eyes and exhaled through her nose, "The Dai Li already have a steady patrol here, like most of the major cities. I went to an Ice Cream parlor around here - Vinny's - and there were two agents that frisked me at the door. Every business in the city is required to have them there now. They have the nerve to call themselves civil servants."

"What does that have to do with finding a solution?"

"It strikes me that the only kind of solution there could be would be in taking the country _back _from the Dai Li. A rebellion. And how long would a rebellion last here without being snuffed out and stamped out by the patrol agents? A rebellion would have to meet outside the city, and there are agents at the toll booths on the motorway and everything. Everyone's recorded. It's like that book 'Nineteen Eighty-Four', by …"

"George Orwell. I know, I read it." Alistair grimaced. "I sincerely hope you're wrong. I hope I can be an aid to the revolt."

Lydia suddenly sat up. "What? Are you _mad_?" she stared at him.

Alistair just watched her and said nothing.

"Wh-why? What would be the point? The Dai Li are _unstoppable_!" She shook her head in denial, "you'd want to go and get yourself _killed?_"

Alistair sat up and put his arms around her, held her close, but said nothing. She didn't understand. Perhaps couldn't. He breathed a sigh and kissed her and they made love again, and then they fell asleep, both unsettled with their minds on the idea of a rebellion. Lydia loved him, and maybe it was selfish to put his life up for the reclaiming of the planet, while she was so madly in love with him. But if bad came to worse, he knew Lydia - his Lydia - would live on, without him.

She didn't understand. Perhaps she didn't need to.

* * *

><p>"Take it easy, Zuko," Aang guided his coughing friend down to a sitting position on one of the lounge seats in Ursa's parlor.<p>

Zuko waved a hand at Aang and shrugged him away, still coughing into his other hand. "I'm-," he gagged unintentionally and winced, "I'm fine, Aang," he gave a smaller cough and patted himself down in a manner as if he were dusting away his illness. His chest still heaved from helping lock up the main door the old way; with a long, horizontal wooden post in two hooks, holding the doors together.

He looked up to see his parents talking discreetly in the ballroom, through the archway, and then he grimaced and looked to Aang, who was frowning too. The bald one sat down too and rubbed tiredly at his face; it had been days since he'd gotten a good night's sleep. "They came here looking for me," he thought aloud, sadness apparent in his voice.

Zuko nodded. "Yeah, I think they did," he gave one last cough into his hand and then made a tiny wheeze in his chest, wincing. "I think I should probably go back to bed."

"That's a good idea," Aang nodded, looking down at his seated friend. "I should go. If they're looking for me, I don't want to put you and your family at risk."

Zuko snapped his gaze to Aang and stared in disbelief for a moment. "Are you crazy? If they're looking for you, you should stay where it's safe; this place is a fortress, Aang. There's probably no place safer in the whole city."

"But they still nearly got in today," Aang turned to look out the window, and then thoughtfully he added, "Besides; I think it's about time I started fighting instead of running and hiding."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Probably just a filler chapter, I know. Don't you judge me! I wanted to round things off with a healthy dose of perspective; you getting to see the beginnings of rebellion, and what Aidan's up to, and Long Feng again, and how things have progressed from the hospital. Plus, Aang finally manned up and took responsibility for who he is.**

**Next chapter you'll see a little more, too. Wrote this on the night before Christmas, to turn a ridiculously cliché phrase. Lyrics from Coldplay's _Viva La Vida_ :3**

**REVIEW!**


	5. World's A Beast Of Burden

Another two weeks passed until the situation changed. It was mid-June when anyone returned to school, under Dai Li order and threat of violence. Grade schools were functioning as normal, for the most part, with the exception of having an agent sit in on every classroom, and pre-schools were completely unaffected. High schools, however, were not simply monitored, but completely taken over, as were most colleges in the country.

Upon setting foot in the school, students were issued with uniforms. That's how it began. Katara, who was almost completely asymptomatic, bar for the nightmares, was getting changed in the changing rooms with Suki at her side when Lydia showed up with a dour expression on her face. They turned to the sound of Lydia's voice squeaking a protest, and saw her standing there, with the door shutting behind her.

Lydia glared at them. "What are you looking at?" she snapped in annoyance, holding her uniform over one arm and glancing over it skeptically. It was nothing like the uniforms back home; that was for shit sure. The girl's uniform consisted of a knee-length, black pleated skirt, uniform school shoes with a two-inch heel and long white socks, a white tunic-type top with elbow-length sleeves, a deep green ribbon-tie with a Dai Li insignia brooch, and a hip-length, dark green robe-looking jacket thing with knuckle-length sleeves.

She looked over Katara and Suki, standing in uniform, bar for the jackets held over their forearms and she grimaced. Katara blinked at Lydia for a moment before speaking in earnest. "Look, Lydia, do we really need to fight amongst ourselves? We need to work together to figure this out," she smiled wanly and began to pull her jacket on.

Lydia pulled a face. "If I wanted to wear a uniform, I'd have stayed in England, you know," she gestured to her own outfit then; a tight-fitting beige dress that came to her knees and had a lace pattern on the back, "This is Gucci. I'm taking off a Gucci dress to wear this crap!" she stamped her five-inch heel on the floor and approached one of the benches in the changing room to begin unzipping the zip down the side of the dress, while taking off her shoulder bag at the same time. "This is unbelievable."

Suki opened her mouth to say something, but she then just drew a quiet breath and put a hand on her belly. She'd been planning to drop out of school, and now she doubted that was an option, even. She felt Katara's hand on her arm and she smiled weakly at her sister, who gave her the same weak, assuring smile in return. She deciphered a pool of swimming emotions below Katara's eyes - below the brave face.

"**All students above freshman year," **the PA spoke up, in a military voice, **"Are to report to the main hall as soon as they are in uniform."**

Lydia went off on another tirade of ranting annoyance, and Katara and Suki exchanged uneasy glances, remembering that the last time everyone had been gathered in a large hall a crazy dude with a gun had tried to kill them all - no offense to the crazy-gun-dude. Rather comically, Lydia got into her new uniform, complaining the whole time, and the three left the changing room and headed for the main hall - which still smelled of cement and freshly cut wood from being refurbished after the blast three weeks ago.

Seats were sorted out, and most everyone was sat, silent, afraid even to speak due to the fact that the Dai Li could do pretty much anything they wanted. Hell, they _were _the government; what bigger power was there to go to? Their superiors? Ha! Suki would've laughed at the very idea if she weren't just as scared to speak as everyone else in the room. Since the explosion, windows had been put in, with roll-down blackout blinds (though Suki couldn't imagine any drama sows being put on in here ever again), and the lights had been removed and replaced with three large chandeliers with lit candles. She imagined someone having to climb the rafters and light the candles every morning, and replace them, and … eurgh, even thinking about it made her feel tired.

"Psst!" someone hissed deliberately, and the three girls stood together looked to the source of the sound, to see Sokka and Zuko (in uniform, no less) waving them over discreetly.

The boys were sat near to the aisle through the room, so as they approached, they had a chance to scrutinize the boys' uniform.

They too were wearing white shirts, except their sleeves were looser. Over these, they wore sleeveless, dark green tunics that came to their mid-thighs, tied around the waist with a lighter green sash that bore the Dai Li insignia. Under these, they wore black suit trousers down to their uniform, black leather suit shoes.

Suki slid in next to Sokka, and the other two sat down on Zuko's side. "What's this assembly about?" she whispered to Sokka.

Sokka just gestured to her to be silent, and then pointed to the figures in dark green strolling around the well-lit room, patrolling. Suki swooped in and gave him a quick peck on the cheek - a sort of token greeting - and then sat still, eyes pointed to the front of the hall, unaware of the small eyes fixed in her direction. Katara and Zuko didn't speak, but exchanged calm, amicable, regarding glances; somewhat awkwardly, Lydia noticed.

As if having to sit in silence next to two people who obviously had a lot to say to each other wasn't bad enough, Lydia nearly shat herself when a voice boomed from the front of the room, in a tone that reminded her of her grandfather, when he'd caught her sneaking champagne at the house party when she was thirteen.

"_Students," _it drawled, and Lydia looked up to the head of the room to see a man. Though, at the time, she didn't think of it as just a simple man; instead, he was a Dai Li agent. It was strange how the mind could place scary affiliations on a simple thing and make it intimidating. It was just a man, she tried to remind herself, but she was unable to shake the image of that Long Feng character sitting behind the desk in the oval office, with blood on his clothes, on the television.

The Dai Li agent in the front of the room was flanked by two others in the regular agent's attire, whereas the one in the middle wore a more ornate insignia on his breast than the others, just above his Dai Li emblem. This symbol was, instead of a grass green with Chinese characters in cream, a gold one, with dark green characters. It was almost the same as the lone gold one that Long Feng had worn on television - that one had been in pure gold, with silver characters.

As well as the second emblem, the middle agent's robes and accessories were different. Despite having what Lydia only dared to call 'abilities', the agents also carried sort sheathes with daggers in them, on their hips. Perhaps for melee combat. Lydia wondered if they were useless in hand-to-hand combat, as a result of always relying on their 'abilities', and so needed melee weapons to aid them. She put this little trinket of information away in her mind.

This middle agent's dagger sheath was not wood, like the others', but of a reddish-brown leather, and adorned with suede tassels with small metal beads on them, and it hung on a belt of steel links instead of a cloth belt, and the accents on his clothes were in gold among the dark green instead of black. Though none of the agents wore their wide-brimmed conical hats indoors, the one clinging from his collar and resting against his upper back was straw instead of armor.

Lydia wished she had a photographic memory; or a notebook, to take this down. Information might be handy at a later date. His face was handsome, in a sickly way that reminded her of the douche-bag jocks that were always hitting on her in the hopes of getting her in the sack, his face was deeply lined with age, and he tucked his hands in opposing sleeves in a way that made her wonder what he kept up them.

"_Welcome back," _the man continued, with a serious frown on his face - at least he had the decency not to wear a smug look - and his eyes flicked over the silent room, _"to your school. My name is Lieutenant Guo Xiang of the Dai Li Militia," _he narrowed his eyes, _"Commander in Chief Long Feng himself hand-picked me to take charge of your education, and I assure you I do not take that lightly._

"_Corporal Ling Su," _he gestured to the agent on his left, who was a breathtakingly beautiful woman of about thirty-two or -three, with thin-framed glasses and long, ebony hair tied up in a knotted style behind her head, with no bangs at all near her neat, central part, _"And Sergeant Chen Gow," _he gestured the one on his right; a man taller than himself, and younger, with a scar across his cheek from a knife or sword, clean-shaven with short-shaved black hair, _"Will be in charge of student discipline, as well as physical education for female and male students, respectively._

"_As for all your educators in specific classes, you will address them with their military title, and if none, then as 'Teacher', and you will regard each and every one of them with respect and obedience." _He glanced over his shoulder to the Corporal, who nodded, and then looked back to the students, _"Corporal Su will now inform you on your new class placements, and further guidelines for proper school conduct."_

He turned to the Corporal and to the Sergeant and lifted his left fist to bump his chest in regard. Lydia thought she heard him recite something quickly to them, and they lifted their left hands and bump their chests too, the same, but said nothing. Eyes followed him as he stepped from the stage, leaving the two on it, and four other agents joined him and followed him out of the room.

This place was guarded like fucking Alcatraz, it was true, and still not as bad as most other parts of the city, but there was still a sliver of hope in Lydia's mind. It wasn't too late to turn things around. Granted, there wasn't much time before the changes in the government and economy became near to permanent, but it wasn't too late. She continually reminded herself of that.

Corporal Su moved forward and drew a piece of parchment from her sleeve to read from. She may have been more intimidating than the Lieutenant, Lydia noted. And misleading, too, because of her beauty; Lydia could easily picture this woman taking a knife to a child's throat, and getting away with it on a simple lie and a faux crying jig. It was strange, too, because Lydia was half afraid of this woman, and the other half of her wanted to like her. She couldn't have explained it if she tried, so she moved away from that train of thought.

She cleared her throat delicately, and spoke up in a harmonious, lyrical voice that cut through Lydia and made her teeth buzz. _"Insubordination will not be tolerated - both within and without the school walls. Any such mutiny will be dealt with deliberately, and inflexibly. Uniforms are to be worn at all times on school grounds, exceptions allowed for PE lessons._

"_You will wear your uniform as it was presented to you; you shall not alter it in any way, or substitute items for others. In winter you may wear a single coat over your uniform outdoors, provided it is black or green. All inter-student relations of a romantic nature are hereby banned."_

Eyes widened and short-lived murmurs occurred. They ended with a few glares from the patrolling agents. Lydia found herself looking to Katara and Zuko, if for no other reason than to see if they would react; she knew there was something up with them, and had been waiting for them to let on. React, they did not, other than a mildly surprised look on their faces.

"_For further information on the subject, you should speak to your class leaders. Finally," _Corporal Su began to tuck the parchment away into her sleeve again, _"All bending is completely and without exception, __**forbidden**__. Whatever you have heard on the subject stops here; if you have bending abilities, you are forbidden to use them. This rule stretches to your families also, and to all members of the public. If you are caught bending, your punishment will be severe. If you discover another student bending, you will be well rewarded for informing any Dai Li agents about it._

"_This concludes the new guidelines on proper school conduct. I will now announce new class placements."_

Lydia found her fist tightening in her lap and she thought about this for a moment, as Corporal Su announced names and homerooms. She'd been teaching herself to manipulate water into ice, in the sink, at home. And she'd been getting good, too. She could coat her hand in a glove of ice, now; and she could do it with a fist to make for a harder punch. Alistair had been sitting there watching in awe.

She remembered him saying something about 'once the symptoms had passed', upon his arrival, and she wondered if he might be able to bend. Then she got thinking about why the Dai Li wouldn't want anyone learning to bend, and then immediately chastised herself for stupid thinking. Why on earth would they want people learning how to fight them? Honestly, she scolded herself; she really could be stupid sometimes.

"… _Senior student Lydia Roxanne Roberts - Classroom D17 …"_

Lydia's ears perked at the sound of her name, her face screwed up and she grimaced. At the familiar feeling of being watched, she looked toward Zuko, Katara, Suki and Sokka, who were all looking at her with surprised looks on their faces. She crossed her arms and stuck her tongue out at them. Curse her mother for that stupid middle name of hers. There were two or three names until another one she recognized.

"… _Junior student Katara Tarin Marina - Classroom D17 …"_

While a look of relief at being in a class with someone she at least knew washed over Lydia's face, a tiny snigger also escaped as she looked to Katara, who was pulling her own face at her middle name. Lydia thought she caught Zuko giving Katara a tiny, amused smile, but she couldn't say for sure. Sokka was grinning like an idiot at his sister in a teasing manner, and then he choked at the realization that his middle name was to be announced too. Either way, anything was better than 'Roxanne', she mused glumly, as they continued on announcing names she didn't recognize, and occasionally ones that she did.

Lydia lifted a hand to her face, feeling a migraine coming on. These headaches had been occurring a lot recently, and she didn't really see why they shouldn't. After all, who _wasn't _stressed right now? Even the Dai Li seemed on edge, and they were the ones who had all the power! It was only the start of the day and she was already being worn down by a headache. Just her freaking luck. Another name came that she recognized. It seemed that her class was mostly seniors, with exceptions based on Katara's English (and to a degree, physics) prowess, and Toph's mathematical genius.

"… _Junior student Toph Shun-Hua Bei Fong - Classroom D17 …"_

Okay, maybe that wasn't so surprising; after all, Toph's parents were (mostly) Chinese. That didn't matter anyway, because Toph was probably dead, as Katara had whispered darkly when she asked where the colorblind girl was, on the way to assembly. Anyway, Lydia wasn't surprised in the least, but she did notice Sokka snigger, once, before he got elbowed by his girlfriend. Lydia got thinking about why they would want to put the smart kids together, and the answer came pretty quickly.

The smart ones were the dangerous ones.

Before any more could be pieced together in her mind, those whose names had already been announced were picked out of their seats and escorted in groups to their new homerooms. With Toph missing, and the calls for classroom D17 over, Lydia and Katara were frog-marched by a single agent to the main door of the room, both looking at each other, and then looking back to the others, who watched pensively.

Lydia shivered against her own will. Something about this felt like being led to her own execution.

* * *

><p>It wasn't until Zuko was led to a group and then that group was taken to its new classroom - A12 in the west corner of the school, and arguably the furthest room from D17 - that he realized it wasn't just by grade that the Dai Li had sectioned them off. It was more like they had split them into little pigeonholed classes. If this was true, then his class was the class for big scary guys with short tempers.<p>

Seriously, some of the guys around him were on the hockey team - and they were fucking scary. These were the kind of guys who knocked out freshmen's teeth for looking at them the wrong way! In fact, it kind of unnerved him to have been put in the same class as these kinds of people.

Trying to look on the bright side, Azula, who was a grade below him, had been called out to be in the same class. Not that it mattered or anything; it was looking like she wasn't going to make it through nowadays. The family physician had been pretty much living with them recently. Apparently, Azula was getting worse by the day.

Not like he needed more stress or anything.

For a brief moment he wondered what life would be like if she really did die, and it sent a wave of worry through him. Naturally, his mother and uncle were a mess over the whole thing, with his uncle holding up a lot better than Ursa. Even Ozai was perturbed. He was spending a few minutes every couple of hours just pacing outside of Azula's room. That may have been the most worrying thing about Azula's state.

"Come on, son, quit daydreaming," a Dai Li agent's hand came down hard on Zuko's uniformed shoulder, and Zuko flinched away, turning to face the agent.

Zuko growled short-temperedly, "I'm not your _son," _he answered sharply, realizing they had stopped in front of the class and he was the only one not inside the class.

The agent frowned at him, but he ignored it and walked into the classroom, a distinctly annoyed stomp in his step. He seriously didn't need all this right now. His sister was dying, for all he knew, and Toph was probably already dead, and Aang … he hadn't seen Aang in two weeks, and Katara and Lydia were stuck together - despite best efforts, they still didn't get along - not to mention a whole shitload of problems that the Blue Spirit might encounter upon returning.

Zuko may have had to obey curfew, but the Blue Spirit? The Blue Spirit said 'fuck that' to a stupid little curfew!

He took his seat at the back of the class, dropping down near to a bulky white guy with dark, short cut hair and a stupid-looking goatee. With a glance in that direction, he recognized him as a hockey player and instantly looked away. He reminded himself not to make eye contact with the guy; he was sure those guys were Satanists or something. Seriously! Maybe they wouldn't be so scary if he had his swords, but he was terribly out of practice with his hand-to-hand combat, and as such, didn't want to get in a fight today.

The door clicked shut and Zuko looked up to estimate his odds in this class. There were three Dai Li agents standing along one wall, keeping an eye on them, and a fourth standing at the head of the room, behind a desk, shuffling through papers.

The one at the desk glanced to a boy sitting in the front row - compared to the Dai Li, the scary hockey players looked like little girls - and beckoned him up, with sheets of paper in his other hand. The boy in the front was on his feet in a moment and approached the front desk timidly. The homeroom agent put the papers in the boys arms and gestured him to hand them out by the names on the fronts.

So this large boy handed out papers with names on them until the one for Zuko Roku Scorsese reached its destination. The boy, having glanced at the middle name on the paper, shot Zuko a look of surprise that Zuko only followed up with a meek expression of futility, and then left to finish his duty. Zuko's first name, he didn't really know the origin of, but he knew his middle name was for his great grandfather on his mother's side; a man he knew very little about. Just that he'd been a mediator of sorts.

Zuko looked down at the piece of paper and with some deciphering, realized that it was a new class schedule. Today, being a Monday, he had Math first, then … what? Science? He'd had separate sciences - Biology, Physics and Chemistry - for four years, and they were giving him a generic science class? He considered speaking up about this, but he stifled himself. After Science it said nothing about break time, it just moved to the third class - Foreign languages, i.e. Spanish. After that, he had Phys-Ed, which he'd always hated, and probably would more so with a Dai Li agent breathing down his neck. Then there was lunch, and that was followed up with Music and then … Etiquette? What the fu-

His train of thought was severed when the buzzer went off and the Dai Li agent at the head of the room gestured the class out of the room.

Zuko continued looking over his schedule as he got up, but not wanting to bump into anyone, folded it and followed the rest of the class out. This was hell on earth, but he'd get through it. Hopefully.

* * *

><p>'<em>Kill me now. Please, God, just fucking kill me now,' <em>Lydia chanted in her head, hoping that the aforementioned would send a bolt of lightning from the heavens to strike her down. Since her fever had broken, she'd been able to sense water literally everywhere. She could feel the ink in her pen as she wrote. She could feel the condensation on the window next to her. She could feel the sweat on the arm of the boy next to her.

It was like the snake in the darkened room; once you turned the lights on, you couldn't un-see it just by turning off the lights. You knew it was there.

She stared down at her work. She was in her new second-period Geography lesson, and she honestly couldn't for the life of her remember how coordinates were supposed to be written. Was it letter-number, or number-letter? Was it different in America to England? For fuck's _sake! _And the Dai Li were strolling around the silent classroom, breathing down her neck, which really wasn't helping.

In the end, she just jotted down something random as her answer and hoped for the best, moving on to the next problem.

After a while, the class was ended with an abrupt buzzing from the PA, and Lydia was on her feet the moment she thought she was allowed to. The students piled out of the classroom as the PA began to speak. The hall stilled to listen.

"**Alright, students; that's a ten minute break."**

And nothing else came through. Lydia shivered involuntarily; the longer the day wore on, the more she felt like a prison inmate. She lifted her hand and stuck a finger between her tight collar and her neck, feeling constricted. Someone walked up behind her and joined her in heading toward the cafeteria. She looked and saw Suki walking alongside her, as students tentatively began to talk amongst themselves around the hallway.

"Please tell me your day is going better than mine," Suki shot Lydia a weak smile.

Lydia eyed her darkly. "It isn't. Or it might be. I don't know," she spoke quickly and nervously. "It's impossible to relax with military types breathing down your neck," she grimaced plaintively.

Suki scoffed a laugh. "Tell me about it. Are we going to find the others?"

Lydia pulled her bag from her side to her shoulder. "Looks like it. Maybe we should meet outside; there's likely to be fewer agents out there than in the cafeteria," she spoke quietly and calmly, hoping to hell the Dai Li couldn't hear her. She checked her watch to see how much time they had left; still a cool ten minutes. She felt as if that time would deplete while she wasn't looking if she wasn't careful.

"Good idea. I'll text Sokka," Suki whipped out her trusty cell phone as the pushed out from the hall into the open air. "You seen Katara?" Suki asked absentmindedly.

Lydia shook her head. "Not since homeroom."

"It's okay - she's with Sokka and Zuko," Suki waved her phone as if in doing this she could enable Lydia to read the text from Sokka via psychic-powers. "They're out on the lawn - by that bench on the edge of the grounds," she explained with a yawn and put her phone away. Just then, a loud grumble from Suki's belly made Lydia raise a brow. Suki smiled bashfully.

Lydia would still be lying if she said she liked Suki, Sokka, Katara or Zuko, but it was better than not hanging out with anyone; and if anyone was able to fix all this, Lydia had a good feeling they might be the people for it, being friends of the bald one all this drama was revolving around.

* * *

><p>Katara ran after Zuko and Sokka across the lawn. Their backs were to her, and she may have been a little overexcited, but she hadn't seen them since that morning, and she was actually relieved to see that they were alive and well. So naturally, she sprinted after them, threw out her arms and lunged playfully, tackling both to the ground. If Zuko hadn't known it was her, he might had turned and punched her on instinct, but as things were, she was lucky.<p>

"Ow! Katara!" Sokka yelped, the side of his face pressed into the grass.

Katara sat up and saw the two boys lying on the grass, on their stomachs, and she immediately moved to sit on Zuko's back. She dropped down and he groaned out an awkward laugh. "Good to see you too," Katara grinned at her brother, who was rolling onto his back and staring into the bright blue sky. Zuko might have groaned a greeting.

The sky really shouldn't have been that beautiful. Something more fitting would've been a hailstorm, or a thunderstorm. Sokka smiled reluctantly at his sister. "I thought you were with Lydia," he sat up and rested his elbow on one knee, dusting himself off with his free hand.

Katara shot Zuko a smirk from where she sat atop him, and then turned her attention back to Sokka. "We had our first lesson together - Humanities - and then she had to go to Geography and I had to go to Science. Hey, what's up with that? What happened to separate sciences?" she reached into her bag and drew out a twinkie in a wrapper.

"Good question," Sokka snorted, drawing his own twinkie from his bag - Kelly had taken to packing lunch for them. She did a better job than Hakoda, at least.

Zuko nimbly rolled over, causing Katara to go toppling backward, hitting the soft grass with a yelp. "Are you guys serious? Nobody else has the brains to put it together?" he scoffed, propping himself up on his elbows. "Why do you think they wanted to take the education system over? Half the school has bending abilities; they're here to dumb us down and make sure nobody gets any ideas about fighting them."

Katara, lying on her back, unwrapped her twinkie. "Oh, yeah. Good point," she pulled the wrapper away, her legs draped over Zuko's middle, "So they won't teach us separate sciences to keep us …" she blinked at the sky, "from learning anything about chemicals? Maybe they don't want us to learn anything about the activation serum."

Sokka spoke up from where he was sat with his eyes pointed toward to school, where a Dai Li agent was stood, watching them with narrow eyes. "You guys better keep your voices down," he ripped the wrapper from his twinkie and bit away half of it in one large 'armphf' of a bite. He drew out his phone, resolving to text Suki to tell her where everyone was. "I don't know about you, but I don't want to see what detention is like with one of those disciplinary officers breathing down my neck."

Zuko glanced to the Twinkie in Katara's hand and absentmindedly replied, "Me neither. Hey, can I get some of that Twinkie?" he asked hopefully.

Katara whined under her breath then tore her twinkie in half and handed him the smaller half. "The nerve of you, Zuko. You already owe me big time."

He raised his eyebrow and brought the twinkie to his mouth. "Owe you for what?" he smirked, before sticking his tongue out and licking some of the cream from the twinkie in his hand. Then he stuffed his portion of baked goodness into his mouth and chewed it, savoring the flavor.

"Saving your ass when you fainted like a little girl," Sokka smirked, swallowing the second half of his twinkie. "Oh, and she _did _nearly save the whole world when your crazy friend tried to blow everyone into little bits with his dirty bomb. Nearly," he shot his sister a look of mixed emotion; half thinking trying to reason with a crazy fucker like Aidan had been pointless, and half thinking she very nearly had saved the world. He sent Suki the text and put his phone away.

Katara and Zuko both fell into silence; thoughtful silence. They considered Aidan, and where he might be now. Katara felt partially responsible for the confused older boy, and she felt that if he was learning again how to see the world without hate, her being close might help. She wanted to talk to him again. Zuko sighed heavily, just lost in thoughts of when he'd thought Aidan to be a respectable guy.

"Hey, Zuko," Sokka sat up a little straighter, "I know this is a bad time to ask, but what did that guy mean, when he said there was a time you'd …" Sokka paused and lifted a hand to the back of his neck. "A time you'd beat a man half to death for looking at you funny, or something like that."

Katara propped herself up on her elbows. "What? Who said that?" she glanced to Sokka and then to Zuko.

Zuko grimaced. "You weren't there; it was before you tried to play hero," he shot her a look of disapproval. "Aidan said it. He was talking about when we were in the psych ward together. It was a long time ago," he looked to the grass, where his fingers were plucking it from the earth. "Let's just drop it. It's not something I'm proud of."

Sokka nodded agreeably. "Fair enough. We all have our demons."

"Ain't that the truth," Katara dropped back to the grass.

* * *

><p>Zuko supposed he should count himself - and his class - lucky, when they got to play baseball for Physical Education. They only rarely had played it before in school for regular lessons - the school team had usually been using the baseball field on the school grounds. But, since that had been disbanded, the field was free and clear for regular games. Having rarely played with anyone other than his friends, Zuko found it hard to work as a team with kids he'd never spoken to before, but they were all in the same sinking boat, and that helped to build a rapport.<p>

Zuko remembered playing baseball with his friends last summer; Aang had hopped the fence, and he and Sokka had boosted Toph, Suki and Katara over to him before hopping it themselves, carrying their mitts, bats and balls in plastic bags over their shoulders. Sometimes they played boys versus girls, and sometimes they picked teams, but this particular time, it had been Sokka, Toph and Aang against Suki, Katara and Zuko.

Katara pitched for Team Vodka, having a sharper aim than anyone else on the team, and Sokka had pitched for Team Budweiser. The team names, of course, had been attributed to what they were drinking at the time, having brought booze with them. Aang had scored a home run while Zuko climbed a tree to get the ball back, and Toph had hit the ball straight into Katara's boob, and there had been much ado.

"**Run! RUN!"** Zuko and his team were shouting to one of the players on their team, with all the others shouting too, and loudly, when said player stopped at third base, with a whole other seven seconds to go before the ball had gotten back to the third baseman. The team groaned with frustration; they were two points behind their counterpart.

Someone clapped him on the shoulder and he turned to see one of the boys - a tall, lean, black kid - who'd played for the school team before. Charlie was acting as team captain for their team right now. "Hey Scorsese," he greeted with a quick smile, "Think you can hit a home run? You know coach always wanted you on the team," the boy, Charlie, glanced out to the field to see another one of their players stepping up to the plate.

Zuko lifted his hand to the back of his neck. "It's a long shot; I haven't played in a while."

Charlie grimaced. "Well, right now it looks like you're our best shot. We're loading up the bases; we'll put you in as soon as they're loaded, got it? We got one out already, don't screw up, alright?" he smiled briefly and clapped Zuko's shoulder in a rough manner again. "We'll put you in on last licks, got it?" he explained, meaning the final inning.

Zuko smiled reluctantly as he turned away. One out, two innings to go, in a five-three game … it was a close call. He looked to the field and narrowed his eyes thoughtfully; what the other team really had over them was a better pitcher. They were using a goalkeeper from the ex-soccer-team as a pitcher as of yet, and he was terrible. "Hey," he looked over his shoulder to the baseball player. "Are we changing pitchers?"

Charlie turned back to look at Zuko and he thought about it for a moment. "Think we should?" he wondered aloud.

"Yes," Zuko smirked wryly.

"I can pitch."

Both Charlie and Zuko looked around for the source of the voice. Their eyes eventually settled on a pale-skinned boy Zuko's height, with dainty glasses and sleek black hair in a short ponytail at the base of his skull and short bangs coming from either corner of his hairline, ending at his temples, who was watching them with narrow greeny brown eyes. He was lean, with muscles in his upper arms and shoulders, but not really anywhere else, and Zuko was immediately skeptic of his pitching skills.

Charlie pulled a surprised face, less skeptic than Zuko. "Yeah? What's your name? Never seen you before, sorry."

"Tao," he answered calmly, his hands held behind his back.

Zuko arched his good brow in apprehensive wariness. That was a Chinese name if he'd ever heard one, but if this guy spoke with any accent at all, it was clearly American, however subtle. "Where you from?" he asked sharply.

Tao eyed him for a moment, and then answered, "Atlantic City."

Zuko had to keep himself from groaning. _Great. _The guy was from _New Jersey _of all places. Probably couldn't drive worth a shit, that was, if he ever gave badmouthing New York a break long enough to go out and drive. Seriously, was this just his bad luck? It was only a matter of time before this moron opened his mouth and started going on about how he knew where Jimmy Hoffa was, or who killed Kennedy …

Charlie, who'd been running his eyes over all the other players, shot Tao a look. "Okay, Tao, I'll give you a shot." He gestured for Tao to follow him to find the ex-pitcher to deliver the news.

Zuko watched as the two walked away and then screwed up his face. He'd never seen that kid before, and his name was Chinese. Devils fan or not, to Zuko, that was suspicious, especially with Chinese-speaking Dai Li agents running a hostile takeover about the place. Where the fuck was Aang when you needed him?

* * *

><p>"And then …" Kelly wheezed with laughter, sat on Hakoda's office floor with a reefer between two dainty fingers, "She-! Broke the …"<p>

Hakoda, who had been propped up against his desk, fell sideways onto the floor, choking on his own gasping laughter. "Don't!" he sobbed gleefully, "You're- you're killing me!" he jumped as he accidentally burnt himself on the lit end of his rolled weed. He'd have to remember to worship his daughter for leaving it badly hidden. "I can't- can't breathe!"

Kelly chortled and nudged up closer to Hakoda to tug him back into his sitting position, her laughter fading. "Up, before you kill yourself!" she giggled, patting him off as if this would make everything better.

Hakoda smacked the floor, laughing hard. "Fuck," he breathed on a single laugh, "I haven't laughed like that since…" he trailed off and his eyes filled with what looked like pensive thought.

Kelly sighed and sat straight again, a fond smile on her face. "Since Kya," she finished for him.

"No, actually," Hakoda smiled at her, "Since last Christmas. The kids were …" a laugh returned as he thought about it, "… sledding down the closed roads in front of the house. Sokka smashed right into the back of Katara and …" he doubled over, snorting laughter, "the two went skidding into the side of a parked car …"

The two burst out in fits of giggles and then moved away from the desk, snuffed out their drug on the leg of one of the steel chairs, and sprawled on the floor, staring at the ceiling.

"Those are some good kids you got, Hakoda," Kelly breathed out, tucking her hands under her head and smiling widely. "Katara's just like her - Kya - and Sokka's the spittin' image of you when you were back in- Mmphf!" she yelped, eyes going wide and her lips puckering against what had been pressed there. Unfocused brown eyes tried their best to fix on Hakoda, who was above her, soft lips pressed to hers.

And it wasn't like se hadn't thought of this. She'd had a crush on him once, when he and Kya had just been dating, but the girl code was never broken; not even for best friends. She'd quelled it down and locked it away, and she'd been happier for it. She'd been married, nearly had a baby, too. She'd moved on.

And Kya! No, this was _wrong. _He was Kya's husband! It was wrong for him to kiss her right now. No, _Ever_!

Kelly would've pulled back, but she was legless stoned and lying on the floor. Her hands unfolded from behind her head and came to his shoulders, pushing against him. As soon as they parted, he was staring at her with huge, dark blue eyes, and she was staring right back, stuck between … stuck between … fuck, fuck, _fuck! _She shook her head choppily.

"No," she breathed, confused, "No," she said again, and set about getting up, sliding out from under him and clambering to her feet. "I have to go," she glanced to him, blinking and swallowing and thinking and breathing and walking all at the same time. All her senses were alert, for some reason. She had a strict moral code, right? She was a _good _person. And good people didn't kiss their dead best friends' husbands! Ever!

She had to get away. This was wrong! Bad! Terrible! She was a horrible, horrible person, for any unclear messages she'd sent Hakoda, or any ideas that had passed through her mind in that moment between kissing him and pushing him away. She had to get away. She'd go back to headquarters, right? She'd go back to her team and all of this would be gone.

"Kelly, wait!" Hakoda was calling after her, groggily.

Kelly swallowed again and felt a lump in her throat. _'I'm sorry, Kya, I'm so sorry …' _she apologized repetitively in her head. "I'm leaving!" she called over her shoulder, and she stepped out of the office. She had to get away. She had to leave! She'd die if she stayed here - it hurt. God, there was a terrible pain in her chest now, and she had to go. She had to go right now!

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Aaaaand … we have lift off. So, mostly filler, but you get the picture. I'm trying to show you what the world is like; it's a policed state. It's one elaborate prison, controlled and monitored by the Dai Li. Tao is a big part in this, just wait and see. He's not so much an antagonist, or even an antihero, he's just a bit … relevant. Also, soon we'll find out how Suki and Sokka's baby ties into all this.**

**Lyrics are from Florence And The Machine's _What The Water Gave Me. _**

**Love you guys. Seriously, dude; review. I've been sitting on this chapter for days thinking 'where did all the reviews go?', and waiting 'til I got more to update! :P Review!  
><strong>


	6. Let Me See The Sun You Set

"_You have _**seven** _new messages. To listen to your messages press _**one. **_To save your messages, press _**two,**" Kelly smacked her hand down on her dusty answering machine and pressed the 'one' button, dropping her bag to the floor and lifting her hands to her face, pushing shoulder-length burgundy curled back against her head and then releasing them.

"_First new message," _the machine began monotonously.

"Hey, Kelly, this is Rachel. Just wanted to call and see how things are going down in Dahlia Coast. Boss is pissed, by the way; he wants to know when you plan on, you know, coming back to work … ? Anyway, call me back as soon as you can. Bye," her coworker's voice spoke up cheerfully, and Kelly's frown deepened.

She looked around the apartment glumly. She'd lived here years ago, before joining the FBI, and she'd never been able to sell the place. It had been her home, for so long; she and her friend had done jell-o shots on the floor here, and she'd had morning sickness here when she'd been pregnant. Kelly hadn't been here in years, and dust had collected on everything. Other than that, the place was frozen in time.

"_End of message. Next new message-,"_

Kelly pressed another button and it fell silent for a moment. She pressed a series of buttons from memory and it went through her saved messages as she scrolled through them. She settled on an extremely old one - eight years old - and pressed one. Kelly drew a long breath and wrapped her arms around her middle, eyes falling half-lidded with sadness.

"_Saved message number _**twenty, one. **_Saved _**January, seventeenth, two-thousand-and-three.**"

And then, both to Kelly pain and bittersweet fondness, her old friends voice spilled through the dusty speaker.

"I'm coming over. I've got Ritz crackers and cheese, and I've got jell-o shots, and whiskey and a movie, so if you're in bed, get up. Hakoda's completely _pissed _me off. I mean, seriously! He forgot to pick the kids up from school, and they were standing out in the snow for an _hour _before he realized he wasn't supposed to be sitting on his ass all day! See you soon, Kel,"

Kelly sighed heavily and put her back to the wall, her head hung. God, she had been so wonderful. Kya had been a kind of sister to Kelly; and it had been great. Kelly herself had grown up with four brothers and no sisters, and Kya had had no siblings at all, and they'd just been sisters together. Best friends, sisters, and everything in between.

Before she knew it, she was sliding down the wall with her head in her hands, crying. Why did the universe have to be so cruel? Why did it have to put her through a windshield and kill her baby? Why did it have to kill her best friend? Why did it throw the world into chaos on a whim?

And why, oh, why, had she wanted to kiss Hakoda in return just a half hour ago?

* * *

><p>Zuko swung open the door to his bedroom and hurled in his bag, causing it to bounce over his bed and hit the wall, his books making a smacking noise against each other. He closed his bedroom door and then crossed the hall to check up on his sister. As per usual, her doors were locked. He knocked his knuckles against one of them and waited patiently, glancing down the hall.<p>

The door clicked and he looked back to it. It cracked open and a bright, perky brown eye peered through to see him. Then it opened wider and Ty Lee was smiling warmly at him. "Oh, hi Zuko! Bet you're here to see Azula, huh?" she smiled cheerfully, despite the state of things. Zuko would have to remember to be more appreciative of her everlasting cheerfulness.

Zuko smiled despite himself, exhausted from his day at school. He hadn't seen Ty Lee in school today, but he attributed that to the fact that the Dai Li were intent on separating girls from boys for as long as possible. "Yeah, I am," he slipped into the room as she opened the door for him. He spotted Mai standing on the other side of the room, by the glass sliding doors to Azula's balcony.

The door clicked shut behind him and Ty Lee approached Azula's bed and sat on the armchair beside it. "She still hasn't woken up since the last time," Ty Lee explained, her smile faltering. "But she's going to wake up. Soon, too," she tried her best to remain optimistic, and Zuko felt he wanted to hug her. Ty Lee was never like this.

Mai pushed away from where she leant against the wall. "Where've you been for the last two hours?" Mai glared at Zuko.

Zuko glanced to her with surprise written on his face. Why did she sound like she wanted to punch him? "My cousin picked me up from school and he had to run some errands," he arched his good brow at her, while approaching his sister's bed. His golden eyes fell on Azula, where she slept, and a frown took his face by force. She looked paler than usual, and despite the raging fever he knew by experience that she was feeling; her sheets covered her up to the chin. He swallowed against the dry feeling in the back of his throat.

"Funny how you haven't been to see your dying sister since Friday," Mai drawled darkly, obviously not impressed with this, "Considering me, and Ty Lee and your uncle have been sitting with her for every waking moment for the past three weeks," she narrowed her darkest brown, almost black eyes at him, even though his back was mostly to her.

Zuko finally awakened to what she was saying and whirled to stare at her, a scandalized, hurt and shocked expression on his face. "You got something to say to me?" he asked sharply, loose fists forming at his sides. Granted, his temper was still at a peak, since he hadn't had a good night's sleep in two weeks with the nightmares niggling him every night.

Mai took a deliberate step toward him, arms crossed over the long-sleeved black button-up shirt she was wearing. "Yeah, I do," she hissed, barely parting her lips to speak, "Where the fuck have you been? You sister is _dying _here, Zuko! And you've been either babying yourself curled up in bed in an ignorant little ball or out pretending everything is completely fine!" she rasped, raising her voice angrily.

Zuko had rarely seen Mai act this way; she rarely lost her temper. Maybe he should've been more focused on her feelings, but he was already stressed, and she was just making it worse. "She's _not _dying," he insisted, a dark shadow of a look coming over his face, "and in case you haven't noticed, I got the fever _too. _What good is going to come from me hanging around here? Azula doesn't care - she's not even awake!"

Mai groaned impatiently, unfolding her arms from across her chest and gesturing to her head in a way that showed how frustrated she was. "It's not that Azula doesn't care, Zuko, it's that _you _don't care!" she pointed a finger in Zuko's direction as she took another angry step toward him. "You don't give a flying fuck that your sister is walking a thin line between life and death, because you're too wrapped up in your own stupid little-,"

Zuko made a kind of noise expressing his want for her to just shut up. "Of _course _I care!" Zuko yelled out indignantly, "How _dare _you tell me I don't care? She's my sister! Of course I care!"

"Huh!" Mai scoffed, her hands coming to her sides, fighting not to form fists. "Could've fooled me!"

"Stop it!" Ty Lee shouted from her spot beside Azula, leaping to her feet, "Stop it, you two! This isn't helping anything!"

"_Stay out of it_!" Mai and Zuko both shouted at once, glaring one another in the face.

Zuko was the first to bark again after that, "And on top of that, who the hell are you to insult someone for not getting all bent out of shape? You're the most emotionless, apathetic, numb, unfeeling person ever to walk the planet!" he laughed humorlessly and then dropped his face back into anger. Honestly, how dare she tell him he didn't feel anything for his sister's condition?

Mai crossed her arms again and lolled her head on her neck in a manner that said 'I can't fucking believe you'. "Oh, great, you want to play that card now. I'm completely within my right to tell you the _truth, _whether or not I blow up over every little thing like you! And the truth is you just don't _give a shit!_" she spat viciously.

"Stop _saying _that!" Zuko barked loudly, his fists clenching at his sides, "You _know _I care! What do you want from me, you want me to _cry _for you? Is that what you want?"

Mai marched up to him and lifted one arm to poke him in the chest, "No, I don't want you to _cry!_" she barked back, and Zuko heard her voice crack on a lump in her throat, "I want you to show a little interest in your sister, goddamn you!" she grabbed the cloth on his shirt and clenched it threateningly in a fist.

Of course he cared. Azula was his _sister. _He loved her dearly, and … and he didn't know how he would be able to go on if his sister died, but … but thinking about it … thinking about her dying _hurt. _It hurt in his heart, and it hurt in his head and it made his eyes feel salty, and he didn't want to feel like that. He didn't want to feel _weak. _Azula would want him to stay strong.

Zuko was breathing hard through his nose, and his face was screwed up bitterly. He grabbed her hand on his shirt and pulled it from him, discarding it back to her. "Get out of my house," he breathed, struggling to keep his temper in check. Mai's eyes widened in surprise, and flared in anger, but he repeated it just the same. "I said _get the hell _out of my fucking house!" he looked down and away from her, his brow furrowing and his eyes closing tightly.

Mai stared at him for a moment and she grunted indignantly, before she marched toward the door. "Come on, Ty Lee!" Mai snapped, grabbing the door handle.

"But what about Azula?" Ty Lee asked meekly.

Zuko spoke up, hesitantly. "I'll stay with her," he heard his voice crack and he cursed himself. He cursed Mai.

Ty Lee joined Mai at the door and stepped out of the room before her friend. Zuko sensed Mai's eyes on his back and he turned to face the door, lifting his eyes - reddened now - to fix them on hers. She was staring at him, his lower lip held between her teeth, her eyes filled with sadness and hate and emotion. Zuko knew she hurt too, but he couldn't deal with it right now. He had to be strong.

Mai opened her mouth, and her voice was sharp as ever, despite the lump her words stumbled over. "I hate you. I hate you so much," she gripped the door handle in one hand.

Zuko stared back, and he imagined he looked a mess, his eyes threatening to leak, and his fists both clenched and trembling. "I hate you more."

* * *

><p>Suki was lying on her side on Sokka's bed, with the lights on bright despite the sunshine outside, her eyes glued to the pages of the book she was reading. It was a book she'd read once when she was twelve, and she hadn't been able to remember why she'd kept it all these years. The book was called 'Blind Beauty', and she'd thought it might be a rip-off of the Anna Sewell book, 'Black Beauty' when she packed it on getting kicked out of her dad's place.<p>

But now she was hooked. She loved this Tessa character to pieces, and now Tessa had stabbed her asshole stepfather and Suki couldn't believe what was happening. She wore an intrigued look on her face, her bookmark held between her pinky and ring finger. As riveting as the story was, with racing and stabbing and horses and all that, when she sensed Sokka's heavy steps coming from the stairs, she immediately stuck the bookmark in and closed the book.

Sokka walked in with hung shoulders and a tired look on his face, apparently having had a rough time of it at his after-school job. But as soon as he saw her, a smile washed over his face and he propped up the bulky, large cardboard box he was holding under one arm. Suki tilted her head curiously. "What's that?" she asked, a smile forming at the corners of her mouth.

He approached and sat on the bed, pulling the huge package onto his lap as she scooted closer to look. He slid the box from his lap to the floor, lowering it so nothing inside broke. Sokka slid his hand into the groove between two of the top flaps and pulled it open; he never would've got the package in if his room didn't have double doors. The first thing in the box was a booklet of instructions.

"Sokka," Suki repeated in a tone that asked him to elaborate.

Sokka handed her the booklet. "This is what we're doing tonight," he began pulling large pieces of polished wood from the huge box.

His girlfriend arched a brow and blinked at him. "Oh, really?" she queried dryly, taking a glance at the booklet he'd handed her. At the line-art picture on the front of the booklet, a reluctant smile broke out on her face. "Sokka … you bought a _crib?" _she pulled herself into a sitting position, dropping her feet off the bed to the side of the large box.

"Actually, no," Sokka gave her a quick peck on the cheek, "This is the crib my parents got when Katara was born. I asked my dad if I could have it for the cookie," he smiled brightly, "I mean, they saved it for if me or Katara wanted it when we were older, and Katara's not having a baby any time soon," he made a 'why not' gesture with his hands and then gave her another kiss on the cheek.

Suki shook her head, smiling, "Sokka, I'm _barely _in the second trimester. It's a long way off, don't you think? A little early to be putting baby cribs together, methinks?" she poked him in the shoulder playfully, putting the instructions booklet down. "Aren't there other things to worry about? Like the Dai Li?" her smile faltered.

Sokka immediately shook his head, "I don't know what to do about that. But I know I can do this," he looked away momentarily, and then smiled again, "I know I can be a dad to our baby, and I know I can be your … uh …" Sokka tried to find the word for it.

"Long-term partner," Suki cleared her throat awkwardly.

Sokka nodded quickly. "Right," he agreed, "And besides, when we bring the baby home, we don't want to start fumbling around putting the crib together then."

"When we bring the baby home … six months from now? You're sure you don't want to do it a little closer to the time?"

Sokka just smiled at her.

Suki sighed, smiled, shook her head. "Alright. Let's put this thing together, then," she scooted off the bed and stood up, resolving to ignore the Dai Li's forbidding any students to date. As long as they stayed secretive about this, and kept their relationship out of school, they should be fine. She didn't know how long she could hide her pregnancy, though … even Lydia had guessed at it today. She shook this off and put it aside.

She'd think about that tomorrow.

* * *

><p>In his happiest corner of the world, Lu Ten lounged, half-asleep on the sofa in Taylor's - his wife's - apartment. The television chattered on in the background, and a dozy smile had found its way to his face as he relished being home from work after a thirty-two hour shift, compliments of Dr. Shauna Peyton as punishment for abandoning duty that night three weeks ago.<p>

Taylor sat on one end of the couch, with his feet on her lap, working her thumbs into the pads of them and unknotting his poor, aching feet, a warm smile on her face.

Lu Ten turned his gaze to Taylor, and his smile immediately widened, along with that happy sensation in his stomach that grew each time he saw her. She was beautiful; with pretty, lengthy, natural blonde curls to the small of her back, and beautiful, stormy gray eyes that watched the rain with fascination. Her face was freckled, just across her cheeks and nose, and her lips were soft and pink, and wonderful to kiss.

And Lu Ten loved her with every ounce of his being.

"I love you, Taylor," Lu Ten spoke up, his fatigue fading away, and he wedged an arm under himself, propping himself up somewhat.

The apartment was poorly lit, but it was only just six in the evening with an orangey sky and pink clouds, and curfew had locked down the city, so it slept for once. Candles - Taylor loved them - lit the room from each wall, and the atmosphere was romantic and deep and it framed her beauty in the most subtle of ways.

Taylor looked to him and her smile parted somewhat. "I love you too," she answered slowly.

Lu Ten swallowed and sat up the rest of the way, dropping one foot off the couch and folding the other so he sat facing her. He breathed in the smell of her and he put a hand to her cheek, and gave her a short kiss on the lips. It was soft, and chaste, and intimate. And she smiled at him, as he searched her eyes for a moment. _'Don't fuck this up. Do not fuck this up, Lu Ten,' _he thought to himself.

He swallowed and smiled mildly. "This is going to sound crazy. But hear me out, okay?"

Taylor's smile widened. "Okay," she laughed under her breath.

Lu Ten drew in a breath, his thumb stroking her cheek. "I love you. I'm _always _going to love you." Taylor nodded and smiled and blushed at this. "And I want to be with you until I die," he continued hesitantly, feeling his own cheeks blooming pink. Taylor bit her lip in the most adorable way. "I know this is a really bad time, with the commie takeover and everything, but I know I love you, more than anything in the world. And I know I want to be with you until I die.

"So … so let's … start a family," he finished awkwardly.

Taylor watched him for a moment and her smile became thoughtful, her eyes looking away and her blush deepening. Lu Ten's soft, warm hand pushed some of her blonde hair behind her ear. She swallowed, an excited feeling growing in her stomach. She bit her lower lip and she looked back to Lu Ten. "I want to be with you until I die too," she agreed, smiling.

Lu Ten's smile was still worried and hopeful and tense.

"Let's start a family, Lu Ten," she nodded quickly, and she saw the happiness erupt on his face.

Lu Ten wrapped her up in his arms and then scooped her up in them, and they laughed and laughed as he carried her to the bedroom.

* * *

><p>Katara blinked her eyes open and then frowned and dropped her feet from the chaise lounge by her window. She'd fallen asleep again, and she'd fallen hard into a nightmare again. Sometimes it was her mother; being shot to death in front of her. Sometimes it was the bloody scene of Alain Baptiste's death. But mostly … mostly it was Jonathan Prescott. This one was one that fell into the last category.<p>

Tearing her shirt apart down her chest, hands roaming … Katara sat up and put her hands either side of her head, her eyes squeezing shut and her brows furrowing. She got to her feet and grunted under her breath, stalking to the light switch and turning it on. Yes, there was still light pouring in through the bay window, but she needed more light; the dark was making her tired.

"Leave me alone," she murmured breathily, glancing down at herself and realizing she was still in her new uniform.

A grimace took her face and she begun untying the ribbon-tie on her chest with one hand, the other expertly undoing the buttons on the hip of the pleat skirt. The uniform fell away and she marched into the bathroom in her underwear, turning on the sink faucet and splashing water on her face to wake herself up. Everything was bad enough without stupid nightmares plaguing her.

She grabbed a satin bathrobe from the hook beside the bathroom door and walked back out of the room, pulling on the satin robe. She tied it around her waist and stalked out of her room and down the hall to the top of the staircase, where she moved to head down the stairs and then paused. Kelly was usually in the kitchen this time of day; cooking up a big dinner.

But she heard nothing; nothing sizzling or boiling, no 'ouch' noises from Kelly accidentally burning her fingers.

NO. Katara ran down the stairs, her eyes gone wide and her heart beginning to hammer in her chest. No, no, NO! She hopped over the bottom step of the staircase and swung herself into the kitchen. The lights were off, and the room was only lit by the light of the sunset outside. Katara's eyes fell on the pink stain on the kitchen floor and she felt sick. She backed out of the room and looked to the door. Sokka's five sets of shoes were there, with the one pair Katara kept by the door, and the three pairs Hakoda kept there.

And Kelly's two pairs of shoes were gone.

* * *

><p>Toph no longer had any use for her iPod Touch, since she couldn't see the screen, so she hadn't even bothered to pack it. Instead, she'd packed her ancient iPod shuffle, from when she'd been twelve. Of course, she'd synced it first with her laptop and loaded all her music to it so she didn't have to listen to the shit her mother had put on it when she'd been a kid.<p>

There were no play-lists, but it shuffled everything on the player, and that was good enough. Besides, as an avid gambler, Toph was usually able to predict the next song by those played before it. The cave dweller smashed her foot down into the earth again, guzzling from one of the bottles of Jack Daniels she'd stolen from a convenience store using her new abilities, and dancing to her old iPod.

The earth shifted to her command and her grin broke for a spell of laughter to spill out. She wished Katara were here, and Suki too, so she could tell them that no matter how hard things seemed to be, to just dance it out and relish a moment of happiness. She felt happiness brighter than any sunshine in her chest and stomach and head and heart and she was just dancing. Fuck the world. She had this, no matter what.

"… It's alright, love takes time," Toph sang out to the music, feet hitting the dirt and making it spring up to her whim, "When you think the world don't care, just reach out and I'll be there - _hold on, _I needja, _just hold on, _I need you, _baby I'll be there for you, tender love and care for you, hold on, I need ya, hold on, I need ya, baby I'll be there for you, love is on its way so just hold on …"_

Toph knocked back another gulp of JD and grinned to herself. She'd have said 'look on the bright side' to herself, but of course, looking wasn't a thing she could really do anymore. Whatever, she told herself, feeling kind of dizzy but still needing to dance; this was way too fun to stop doing. Toph eventually fell over and put the bottle down before it spilled. She passed out with a huge grin on her face, completely uninhibited.

She'd lost everything. And now, she'd never felt freer.

* * *

><p>"What was that all about, Mai?" Ty Lee asked tentatively, as she and her friend crossed the street toward Mai's house. It was past curfew, but they didn't think the Dai Li would be too hard to get by; Mai lived just across the street and they could just say they didn't the time going by. After all, Mai had even caught the agents at school checking Ty Lee out, so all Ty Lee had to do was act in her usual flirtatious way and they'd be set.<p>

Mai shook her head and tucked her hands into her pockets. "I should've known it was too good to last," she murmured thoughtfully.

"What was too good to last?" Ty Lee took Mai's arm and tugged on it inquisitively.

"Me and Zuko being friends, after the last time we broke up," she answered calmly, her eyes on the ground ahead as they walked. Then she corrected herself, "Actually, not the last time we broke up; the time before that," she spoke up, lifting a hand from her pocket and pinching the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger. "We only got together after that because he thought he was … over it," Mai grimaced.

Ty Lee tilted her head curiously. "I know that last time you and Zuko broke up was because you didn't get along with his uncle, right?"

The ghost of a smile washed over Mai's face. "Something like that. Personally, I think that was more because the old man thought Zuko should be with Marina, and looking back he was probably right. It wasn't because I didn't like the old man, okay, it was because he didn't like me," she reached out and put a hand on Ty Lee's shoulder. "Then again, tomato-tomahto."

Ty Lee nodded as the two slipped through the unlocked gates onto Mai's property. "Well, why did you break up the time before that?"

Mai stopped on the path toward the house and fixed her eyes on the mansion for a moment, darkest-brown eyes narrowing at the ugly sight of the horrid thing. She glanced to Ty Lee. "You can't repeat this to anyone, okay, Ty Lee? Ever. Not even to Azula," she looked back to the house and flexed her hands in her pockets. She sighed heavily and shut her eyes, mulling it over. "Promise me that and I'll tell you. You should understand it better than anyone else."

Ty Lee nodded quickly. "I promise. I won't tell anyone."

Mai swallowed and shook her head. "When me and Zuko were together, I got pregnant," she explained quickly, keeping her gaze away from Ty Lee. "I thought I was infertile; we'd been together for months, and we hadn't been using protection, so I thought it was safe to assume. Obviously it wasn't."

Ty Lee was looking at Mai with this sickeningly pitying expression.

Mai sighed and drew a packet of cigarettes out of her coat, slipping one out and summoning her lighter from her sleeve. She lit up, put the cigarette in her mouth and put the lighter and packet away. "I was smoking three packs a day, you know; and drinking a lot. If I'd had the kid, it probably would've been brain damaged or something," she spoke up in a rasp attributed to her years with Benson & Hedges cigarettes. "I had an abortion," she continued abruptly, turning fully to face Ty Lee, taking the cigarette from her mouth and looking at it between her fingers.

Ty Lee blinked glimmering brown eyes at Mai.

"I went to a clinic in the city and I paid them five grand over the regular fee to do it and keep their mouths shut," Mai felt sick to her stomach all of a sudden and she tilted her head back to look at the sky, trying her very best to avoid Ty Lee's pitying gaze. "A week later I told Zuko I'd missed two periods, and gotten a pregnancy test. I told him it was positive, and … and he hugged me. Told me he'd make everything right. Told me I'd have everything I could possibly want, and that he'd marry me.

"And then I told him I'd already sorted it out," Mai shut her eyes, brought the cigarette back to her mouth and dragged in a long, smoky breath from it. When she was finished with her long spell of just standing there and smoking, she continued, "That was the first and only time I ever saw him cry. He told me to leave, and I did. I had my family send me to Boston to stay with my Aunt for a while, so he could … mourn, I guess."

Ty Lee nodded slowly. "I remember. You called me and Azula every day on three-way call for two months."

Mai nodded too. "Yeah," she replied simply.

They stood out in front of the house, looking at it for a long time, until the sun fell away and the world was dark in more ways than one.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Deep, much? **

**It's mostly short scenes, which I think is nice, because I haven't had a chapter like that in a long while. The theme I was going with was trying to get the readers to feel. I was totally on the verge of crying when I wrote that 'I hate you more' scene, and I felt giddy while writing the LuTaylor scene. Toph's dancing scene probably is pointless, but I think she needs to have a little bit of a piss-up with all the shit happening to her.**

**I think this is what writers call an 'interlude', but I wouldn't know.  
><strong>

**This was not Zutara central at all, or even Taang, with only minimal Sukka, but more an elaborate chapter fixed to focus on my supporting characters. It was certainly interesting, anyway, to write this way. I only mean it as a one-time thing, just to lighten the load. Next chapter we'll have Aidan's fate tying into it as well as more Dai Li impending doom stuff :3**

**I really shouldn't be updating because I promised myself I wouldn't do this anymore. I said I would only ever upload a chapter when I had the next one finished. But alas, here I am. Dammit.  
><strong>

**Lyrics are from Katie Herzig's amazing song, _Lost and Found, _as it was my inspiration for this whole chapter. My replay button is broken :P**

**Review!**


	7. If I Only Could, I Surely Would

Katara sat in the assembly hall, in a mixed state of exhaustion and hyperactivity, tired blue eyes dulled by lack of sleep falling upon her knees where the pleated skirt of her new uniform covered them. She could hear words whispered around her, but she couldn't make them out. They were in hushed, serious, cautious tones and voices, some of which she recognized.

Blue eyes flickered to one side and saw Zuko sitting at her right side. They turned to the other side and saw a familiar blonde sat beside her; Lydia Roberts. Beyond where Zuko sat next to her, Katara could see her brother and Suki sitting. Their lips were moving, and Zuko was turned away from her, speaking to Sokka and Suki. Lydia was leant back, murmuring to herself.

She didn't hear the voices; just the hazy blur of their echoes.

Their lips stopped moving the second she realized that, and they all turned their heads in one stiff motion, pupils widening in their irises as they moved to the front of the room. Katara glanced to Lydia, then to Zuko, and then she looked up to the front of the assembly hall. There was a voice; and this time she could make out just what it was drawling tauntingly.

"_Katara, my sweets," _the voice was still muted, and if she hadn't recognized that alone, she'd have recognized the smug laughter the words were followed up with.

She felt her fingernails gripping the bottom of her seat as her unfocused eyes fell on the stage at the head of the room. Of all times for it to happen, her eyes went blurry; as she felt her breath quickening in her chest, each and every muscle and nerve in her body twitching tensely. Katara's gaze panned around sloppily as she felt her consciousness wavering. She grabbed the empty seat in front of her; she was now completely alone.

Her cerulean stare fell on a tall shadow in black at the head of the room, with a chin tilted up to the air, her ears wanting to bleed at the horrid laughter the monster released from between thin, cracked lips and white teeth. The laughter ceased and the cold brown eyes of a killer fixed upon her as he tilted his head forward in the darkness. The figure fluctuated like a glitch in a video game for a moment. His lips parted again, his cheeks plumped by the way he grinned wickedly. _"Are you scared, my pet?"_

Katara pulled herself up to her feet, her face contorted in horror. "No!" she opened her mouth and screamed out adamantly. "This is just a dream," she muttered sharply under her breath, and suddenly the seats were gone from around her. She stood in the darkened, empty assembly hall with her monster stood in the dim light at the head of the room. "This is just a dream!" she repeated, louder, taking a step back from her monster.

The monster flashed again like a glitch, and then was gone from in front of her. Stepping back, she bumped into something hard with her back.

Katara screamed despite herself, traitorous tears leaking from wide blue eyes as she spun on her heel and receded from the man in black. "This is a dream," she reminded herself at a whisper, words on a shaky exhale. "You're just a figment of my imagination!" she yelled out, trying desperately to convince herself of this fact. This was a dream; her common sense was sure of it, but … but …

The monster's white grin split open in the darkness. _"Are you really sure about that, Katara?"_

Katara turned to run away, and she found herself staring down a brightly lit corridor. She recognized it as corridor D - the same corridor Zuko had asked her to come to before the school had been taken hostage. At the end of the hall she knew the door leading into that empty classroom would be; and Zuko would be behind it. Her legs pushed at the floor under her and she was walking, then running, toward the door.

She passed classroom D4.

She passed classroom D5.

She passed classroom D4.

Katara kept running, her eyes wide with confusion. No. No, no, no! This … no! She was passing the same two classrooms over and over again; the hall stretched longer in front of her and the faster she ran, the further away that door to Zuko seemed. She gasped out her dismay. "No! _**NO!" **_her voice was hoarse in her throat as she reached forward for that end door, as she passed the same two doors again and again.

The chuckling voice echoed in her head from the speakers in the ceiling corners of the hallway, this time on the verge of becoming a raging caw of a laugh. _"Run, run, as fast as you can," _it dragged out its teasing words, the calculated poison in his voice scraping against her consciousness. _"If you can't save him … no one can."_

Katara's eternal halt broke and the corridor shrank back to its normal size. As her mind worked on the monster's words - save him? - Katara felt the ground start moving under her again and she was speeding toward that door at the end of the hall. In some corner of her reasonable wit, she knew that it hadn't been that end classroom where she and Zuko had stolen a kiss, but one of the others - perhaps even D4 or D5 - but every other voice in her head told her he was there; in that end classroom.

The speed she'd built up threw Katara into the door, and bruising pain broke through her shoulder as the door snapped at the handle, collapsing in against her weight. The door disappeared before it could clatter on the classroom floor, and she hit the floor with a smacking noise. The wet floor was hard and unforgiving. She didn't know she'd shut her eyes until she cracked them open.

And saw only two dead eyes of gold in a sea of deep red.

* * *

><p>Katara threw herself into a sitting position, her face wet and tearstained, and her sheets clenched in her fists. She'd broken out in a cold sweat at some point in the night, and she was breathing in hard gasps, desperately trying to keep herself from crying. Toned, tanned legs kicked off the side of the bed and Katara hunched over, catching her face in her hands. She opened her blue eyes to look to her bedside table. She saw her cell phone and considered snatching it up and dialing Zuko's number, just to hear his voice.<p>

Katara shook her head and grunted under her breath. "Just a dream," she murmured, "Just a stupid dream," she tried to reassure herself on a shaky breath.

He was okay. She was okay. It had just been a dream.

Katara got up and stalked into her bathroom. With one look in the mirror, she grimaced at her appearance. She seemed to have aged five years in the last three weeks. Katara reached into the shower stall and turned on the water, shedding the pajamas she wore and discarding them to the laundry basket. She wondered what time it was, as she stepped into the shower, her eyes still lazily closed.

It had still been dark in her room, but she'd heard traffic on the roads outside. Perhaps only barely past six; curfew had only just been lifted. Katara blinked her eyes open in the hot water and stared up as the water rained down and wrapped her in a warm, caressing embrace. The water stirred something in her chest; it awakened something that comforted her despite the nightmare she'd just awoken from. It moved across her skin in warm, loving streams. She felt blissfully aware of almost every particle of the energizing streams.

Katara watched the water for a moment as the wheels of her mind began to turn. Tentatively, she raised her hands to the water. The clear liquid pooled in her palms before running down her wrists and dripping from her elbows. Maybe she couldn't bend it or manipulate it the way Lydia could, but right now she felt the water like a magnetic pull. It felt alive to her; almost human. She shut her eyes and smiled serenely.

She didn't even notice when her hands moved unconsciously around the flow of the water, and the streams running down her forearms dwindled. Her hands were suddenly overcome with a wonderful warm sensation, as if she'd dipped them in a bucket of warm water. Blue eyes cracked open hesitantly, and her muscles immediately stiffened in surprise. She'd been holding orbs of water in and around her hands. Of course, now these bubbles burst and splashed to the floor of the shower stall, but she'd _done it!_

Katara had _bent _the water!

* * *

><p>Zuko searched the medicine cabinet in Azula's bathroom until he found the bottle of methylphenidate that she'd been prescribed about a year ago to help with her martial arts studies. She'd faked a concentration problem and gotten their family physician to prescribe it with a diagnosis of ADHD, and then popped a pill of it every six or so hours while staying up all night and running through katas in the gym downstairs. She'd been full of energy and had handled the doses well, so Zuko had never thought there might be a bad side to popping pills to stay awake.<p>

He dry-swallowed one of them at around three in the morning, in the wee hours of Tuesday morning; not long after deciding he didn't want to go to sleep. The dreams he'd have if he went to sleep were so bad they'd had him clawing his way out of bed for the past week each morning, and questioning himself for turning the light off before going to sleep each night. So he wouldn't sleep.

He'd just wait out the last remnants of his fever, and then he'd sleep.

The methylphenidate kicked in about five minutes after he took it, and he could immediately see why Azula had wanted them. He was wide-awake in minutes, and it was still dark out. He crossed the hall to his room and grabbed that book on Patent Law that his father had told him to read, before returning to his sister's bedside, taking the opportunity to get some studying in while he had this level of concentration, considering he'd gotten all his homework done already, whilst sitting near Azula on the armchair near the bed.

When the summer sun rose two hours later, Zuko heard his alarm clock ringing out across the hall, in his room. He closed his book, got up and headed for the door. Zuko crossed paths with his uncle in the hallway; Iroh had apparently come to sit with Azula for a while. They exchanged few words before Zuko headed into his room and went about getting ready.

Once he was showered and clothed in that god-awfully uncomfortable uniform that somehow didn't bother the girls, Zuko walked into his bathroom and set about having a shave before he left for school. True, it was only barely past five, but he was wide-awake now and he had nothing else to do. He brushed his teeth and shaved, and then stood at his sink, his eyes focused on his reflection.

"Fuck," he murmured breathily, as he lifted a hand and prodded at the dark circle under his good eye with a fingertip. He looked like hell, if he was completely honest.

Zuko groaned in annoyance and stalked out of the bathroom, stooping to the carpet of his bedroom floor to grab his school bag as he moved to the door; yes, he was early, but he could go for a ride around town before he went to school, or something, to kill time. He was generally an early riser anyway; even if this was pushing things past the norm. Something stopped him however.

A ray of warm sunshine hit his face as he grabbed his bag up, and he paused in his tracks to look out the door onto his balcony. He was unsure if it was the drug or the sun itself, but a tingling feeling of warmth and life filled his chest, and despite the tension he held in his shoulders, or the stress he felt in his head, he smiled. Zuko drew a calm breath and moved toward his bedroom door, eager to get out into the sun.

* * *

><p>"It was an accident!" Haru screamed, as the Dai Li agent behind him forced him into the locker row and secured his hands together. He groaned into the metal locker his face was pressed against. The Dai Li agent said nothing and Haru heard murmurs of shock and surprise around him, as the Dai Li agent stepped back, pulling the teenager from the locker with a hand on the restraints around Haru's wrists. "Let go of me!"<p>

Nearby, Sokka and Suki pushed through the crowd to see what the hubbub was about. A Dai Li agent was escorting Haru away from them, toward the upstairs offices above corridor F; where Lieutenant Xiang's office was, along with Corporal Su's and Sergeant Gow's. A grimace broke out on Sokka's face and his eyes shifted to where a section of the wall was pressed inward, with the stone showing through the paint as a result, in the shape of a hand.

Suki leant toward Sokka, her voice a hushed whisper. "He's an earthbender. Like them."

Sokka shook his head. "Not like them," He put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. "Haru is an asshole, but he's not …" he trailed off and shook his head. "Whatever. We'd better get to class," he took his hand from her shoulder and lifted it to the back of his neck, wanting to give her a kiss but thinking better of it. He didn't want to put anyone at risk of getting in trouble with the Dai Li.

Suki nodded briefly. "We'll see you later," she smiled reluctantly and lifted her hand to her belly.

Sokka's brows tilted worriedly and he nodded, once. "See you," he stepped backward and then turned, heading down the hall.

Suki blinked after him and sighed heavily, before turning away and walking toward her first lesson.

* * *

><p>"Psst! Hey, wake up!" Toph felt someone patting the side of her face and she frowned tiredly.<p>

She felt softness against her back; warmth enveloping her. Blind eyes were squeezed shut, but she could feel sunlight on her cheeks. Her arm was held over her face in her state of half-sleep. She grumbled into the soft skin of the crook of her elbow. "What time is it, Aang?" she murmured tiredly, a loud yawn beginning in her head and then escaping her lips, "You know I hate waking up … early …"

There was a pause, and the voice that came to her was quite obviously not Aang's. "It's nine, and I don't know who 'Aang' is, but you gotta leave before my wife wakes up," the voice snapped in a harsh and worried whisper.

Toph's blind eyes snapped open and she threw herself into a sitting position. "What?" she yelped, becoming more aware of herself; of her surroundings. She'd been sleeping on a couch, with a blanket draped over her. Her brain was pulsing in her skull with a terrible hangover, and only now it was flaring up with her surprised exclaim.

A hand smacked over her mouth. "Hey, shut up! You want everyone to hear you?" the panicked voice hissed.

Toph grabbed up for her face and clenched on the one held over her mouth. She heard a wince as she dropped her feet from the couch, becoming painfully aware of her own nakedness, and the logic of where she might be; what she'd done the night before. Toph couldn't remember anything in the last … two? Three days? Four? She could still taste Jack Daniels in her mouth, and her cheeks were hot from a drunken haze. She threw the hand away. "Who are you? Where am I?" she asked in a quick, quiet hiss.

Her feet made contact with the wooden floor, and a wave of awareness passed through her; she saw the coffee table in front of her, and the man knelt by the couch, holding her clothes. She caught the way his muscles pulled against one another as he prepared to throw her clothes at her. She didn't recognize him, but he was half-naked too, and hung over.

Toph grasped them in mid-air, without turning her head to look. She quickly began to get dressed, even though her head was spinning.

"Don't matter, y'dumb bitch. Get dressed and hit the road," he snorted and Toph sensed him standing up. Toph guessed he was offended she hadn't remembered anything from the night before. Toph turned her mind away from him as one hand went to her screaming temple.

How much had she forgotten? What day was it? How long had she been drinking like this? She'd been miles away from civilization, last thing she remembered; and now she could sense traffic around this suburban house. Suburban, she thought to herself. There were only two suburban areas in Dahlia Coast; the one just off the poor district, and the one on the other side of town, near the rich district, where Katara and Sokka lived.

More importantly, what had she done on this crazy bender? Sure, having a crazy night you forgot was fine, but this was … this was probably the stupidest thing she'd ever done! Here she was naked on a couch with a random stranger! How many other men could there have been? How many other perfect strangers had she allowed to have their way with her, just because she was drunk and alone and stupid? And why? Why had she done this to herself?

Toph felt shame and disbelief at her own actions washing over her face. She'd chased away her handicap with booze, and followed it up with stupidity. She felt like she was waking up from a dream; a deluded and both selfish and self-harming dream where everything had been blurry and painless - a shield against a harsh reality.

Toph got up, fully dressed in her underwear, jeans and Avenged Sevenfold t-shirt, and grabbed her rucksack from the floor. She paid no attention to the man moving toward the staircase on the far left of the vague room as she headed for the front door, her eyes still wide from surprise and shock. Toph let herself out and passed a hand over the curve of her brow, mixed emotions knotting her mind.

Toph stopped a few blocks down the road and lifted both hands to her face, and whispered. "What the fuck is _wrong _with me?" she blurted into the summer morning air, sweaty fingers pushing her bangs back, her hung-over head screaming at her. She was supposed to be a fucking _genius, _and here she was … here she was on the street, unable to remember two nights ago, like some fucking _retard!_

She grabbed a strap of her backpack and pulled it off her shoulder, unzipping it in the process. Some clinking came from within, and it made her sick. Moments later, a Jack Daniels bottle smashed on the sidewalk, followed by two more until Toph's bag held very little, and she felt homeless, naked and alone. The freedom of intoxication had passed.

And now she was alone. She was homeless, and naked, and more alone than she'd _ever_ been before.

* * *

><p>Katara looked up from her seat at the back of the classroom at the sound of a familiar voice apologizing for its tardiness. Her blue eyes fell on a tired-looking Zuko, as he moved through the classroom toward the empty seat beside her. She felt relief; the tension in her shoulders decreased and she even smiled briefly, but it disappeared as soon as she thought the teacher might be looking in her direction.<p>

He looked terrible; exhausted and stressed, and somewhat at odds with himself, too.

Zuko took the seat beside her without even offering her a glance, but he reached over discreetly with one hand below the table to nudge her in the hip affectionately. Katara wondered if it was just his way of keeping her safe; making sure nobody could tell he felt anything but friendship toward her, or just him being awkward. She kept her gaze on the work in front of her, and turned her mind back to the History essay the class had been ordered to write on the American Civil War.

School had always been this boring, except a month ago, you could ignore your work and talk about who was screwing who, and what was happening on television. Now they were afraid to lift their eyes from the papers handed to them.

Something light and ticklish brushed against her bare elbow on the table; she'd taken off her jacket, like most of the students, in the hot weather. Katara thought fast, recognizing it as a piece of note paper, and lifting her elbow and taking the paper with the fingers of her other hand, her eyes trained on her pen as it wrote. Once satisfied that none of the agents in the class were watching her, Katara glanced to the note.

'_Can we talk? I mean really talk; it's been hard to get a moment alone with you.'_

Katara guessed he'd written it before entering the classroom and slipped the note onto her workbook, so that it looked as if she were doing her work while she was writing her reply.

'_Sure. Break time?'_

She slid the note back under her elbow, and continued writing about Robert E. Lee. The note came back again quite quickly, and she wondered how Zuko could be so discreet, and yet fast, at note writing.

'_No. Agents everywhere. Tonight, incognito, after curfew; meet you in the city, where you were talking about the moon that time we were running surveillance on Aidan.'_

Katara didn't reply in writing. Instead she slid the note from the table and into her lap, and nodded discreetly, as the hand under the table took the note and crumpled it slowly and quietly in one palm. She was fine with this; she'd wanted to go out as the Painted Lady again. There had to be a lot of good she could do as her. She just hoped her bullets were enough to fend the Dai Li off; they nearly hadn't been when she'd been attacked on the day the bomb had gone off.

Warm and rough fingers brushed against the hand she hid under the table, and she had to bite back a smile at Zuko's tender caress.

She'd probably said it before, but she was sure in that moment that theirs had to be the best-kept secret ever.

* * *

><p>"Why aren't you out finding our little girl?" Poppy Bei Fong wept hysterically; "We've given you our support, and this is how you repay us?"<p>

Lao squeezed his wife's arm in an effort to calm her, as they stood in the new Dai Li Patrol headquarters; that which had once been a police station. The new head of security for Dahlia Coast, Captain Chang-Ming, sat behind his desk with his hands together, elbows up on the desktop, his eyes moving between the Bei Fong family matriarch and patriarch. "We mean you no disrespect, Captain," he apologized for his wife's outbreaks.

Captain Chang-Ming nodded and grimaced. "The Dai Li appreciate your contribution; you can be sure of that. And as we speak, we have four patrol agents on your daughter's trail. There was a suspected sighting early this morning just off the poor district, and all our agents have been issued with the recent photograph you provided. I assure you we are doing our utmost best to locate her."

Lao nodded, as his wife curled up against him, her face to the soft space between his shoulder and chest. "Thank you, Captain," he bowed his head, and lifted one hand to his chest, thumping three times formally. "Strength, Might, Power," he recited calmly, and turned to lead his wife from the room.

The Captain lifted a hand also to his chest, and thumped three times, but he did not repeat. "Be safe, cousin," he nodded solemnly.

* * *

><p>"Whoa!" Aang yelped, as he jerked his glider to the left to avoid being hit by the barrage sent his way. His new friend - a flying lemur, and probably the last, that he'd found while snooping around the ruins of his childhood home in the Tibetan mountains - who had been flying beside him, also jerked to the left, making a chirping noise between its teeth. "These guys aren't playing around," he murmured, as he swerved off toward the high roof of a stately building overlooking the capitol building.<p>

The lemur landed beside him, almost in the same manner, and Aang ducked low, closing his glider and laying it down to avoid being spotted. His sharp gray eyes narrowed and focused on the capitol building, which despite the crisp white paint on it, looked worse for wear. Then again, Aang supposed, everything and everyone was worse for wear nowadays. He'd hoped not to take so long to get to the Air Temple, or so long to get back, but there was no time to dwell on that now.

Momo, for that was what he had named his new friend, climbed his jeans and the back of his sweatshirt to sit on his shoulder. Aang lifted a hand and petted the animal, once, with a sour expression on his face. He should have stopped for rest a few days ago, and now he was exhausted from endless travel. He continued taking mental notes about the security in the capitol.

Once he'd run a good amount of surveillance here and had a good picture of what it would take to reclaim it, he'd fly home, sleep for twenty-four hours straight, and set about figuring out a way to fix all this.

* * *

><p>Katara and Zuko walked away from their History class with serious expressions on their faces. Zuko's schedule told him he was due next period in English class, and Katara's told that she was next due in her simplistic Science class. The halls were silent, despite the students milling around toward their lessons. Katara moved her eyes to Zuko when she caught him reaching into his rucksack for something.<p>

She turned her eyes to him, but said nothing.

Zuko drew out a little bottle of some pills, and surprise and confusion broke out on Katara's face. He popped one out of the bottle, closed it, and slipped it back into the rucksack. With a quick movement and a jerk of the head, he swallowed the pill back, and pulled a face. When he caught her staring at him in shock, he raised a brow. "What?" he snapped.

Katara hadn't meant to look judgmental, but she didn't react to his sharpness. "What did you just take?" she asked quietly.

Zuko sighed as the walked, his apprehensiveness fading. "Ritalin. To stay awake."

"Oh," Katara's features softened in understanding. Tentatively, she added, "Because of the nightmares?" in a hushed tone.

He glanced to her, and nodded numbly. There was a pause before he spoke, and then he answered reluctantly. "Yeah," he began, "they're pretty bad," he breathed out.

"You can't just not sleep, Zuko," she glanced down to where his hand hung at his side, and immediately wanted to take it in hers. Blue eyes moved back to his gold ones. "It's not healthy."

Zuko smiled dismissively. "I'm fine, Katara. You don't need to worry about me," he assured her, but it didn't soothe her; he guessed she could see his exhaustion right through the front he put up. She'd always been able to read him like a book, and now he kind of wished she couldn't. Zuko didn't want her to see him like this; like a tired and weak pill junkie.

Katara ran her tongue over her lower lip and looked ahead. "How often are you taking them?" she asked carefully, blue eyes following the rows of lockers as they moved through the hall.

"One every six hours."

She nodded stiffly. "Alright. Just don't up your dosage; those things can get addictive."

"Katara Tarin Marina," came a stern voice from behind, and the two stopped in their tracks.

Katara and Zuko both turned to look back, and saw Sergeant Gow, the youngest of the three head agents at the school, flanked by four other agents, standing behind them. How had they not noticed them walking up from behind them? Blue eyes and gold met, sharing a communicative and considerate glance. Zuko urged to stand between Katara and the Dai Li, but he made no such move. Katara swallowed and addressed the Sergeant respectfully.

"Can I help you, Sergeant?" she bowed her head shallowly too, to stay on their good side. It made her feel sick to bow to the likes of them, but she did it just the same.

The Sergeant gestured to the Dai Li, and two of them approached her and took her sides, forcing Zuko to step back, away from her. The other students just pushed past and ignored the scene, not wanting to get involved. Zuko watched as the two agents took her by the elbows, and he marveled at her composure when she didn't struggle. She tilted her chin up a little bit, and put on a brave face.

"Corporal Su would like to see you, Miss Marina," Gow explained in a calm and serious tone.

Sergeant Gow turned away from her, as did the two remaining agents at his side, and Katara felt the two at hers pulling her after him, so her feet moved beneath her, after him. She tilted her head to look over her shoulder, and saw Zuko watching her in silence from behind, with a worried expression on his face. Katara wanted to give him a reassuring smile, but all that she could muster was an equally worried look.

* * *

><p>Azula's eyes cracked open. She felt a wave of coolness at her temples; soothing and peaceful. Her blurry vision caught the white ceiling above her, and the golden chandelier as a simple golden blob above her, and she heard voices beyond the muted haze of her in-between state of awareness. One she recognized as her mother's, and another as her uncle's.<p>

The closest one, however, she didn't recognize. It came from directly above her.

"… Waking up …"

Azula blinked a few more times, her awareness shifting to her limbs, and the rest of her body. A hand came up to her face and she rubbed at her brow, a dull ache in the pit of her head. That soothing sensation dissipated and she found herself missing its cool remedy to the pain in her head. Azula felt as if she'd slept for a hundred years, as she opened her eyes again to take in her surroundings.

She was in her bedroom. She could see her chandelier, and she could see the light pouring in from outside, and she could feel the silk and satin sheets of her bed under and around her. Her mind, which had seemed submerged only moments ago, began to clear and she could focus it on certain points of her memory. The explosion; fainting outside the school. How long ago had all that been?

"Azula," came a tentative voice, and Azula's golden eyes searched left and right for it.

Ursa came into view, and Azula felt herself relaxing somewhat. She was unable to make words, but her expression softened at the sight of a familiar face. Beyond the relieving reality, Azula's focus turned to the images of monsters and ghosts long dead in the plague-like state she'd been in. Azula felt her mother's soft hand on her cheek, and shut her eyes with a calmed exhale.

When she opened her eyes again, she spotted her Uncle on the far left of the room, speaking to another old man, with a receding hairline and a gray ponytail. She couldn't see the stranger's face, but she didn't think it was important. Azula moved her cheek against her mother's cool hand, and considered going back to sleep. Then a noticeable grumble came from her stomach, and she suddenly had a craving for bacon and eggs.

Azula opened her eyes again and began to move herself into a sitting position. She felt detached from the world, in some strange sense, but that didn't matter. She needed food. However long she'd been out, she hadn't eaten in ages, and that needed remedying.

* * *

><p>"What's this about?" Katara queried briskly, as an agent beside her guided her into a seat on one side of a desk at the head of the office.<p>

The woman on the other side of the desk gestured the agents in the room - including Gow - toward the door. Katara was sure she heard Gow begin to protest, then think better of it. Gow and his four subordinates all filed through the door, and then shut it behind themselves. Katara had thought the regular agents were intimidating, but there was something even scarier about the beautiful woman sat opposite her.

Corporal Su leant forward in her lavish office seat and put her elbows on the table, pale and dainty hands meeting one another in the middle. A sickly-sweet smile wriggled its way to the woman's face, and she fixed piercing eyes on Katara; the younger girl could tell what she was doing. She was sizing her up - looking for a weak point. The Corporal wanted something from her.

"Would you like some tea, Katara?" a lyrical voice spilled past pretty lips, and the teenager nearly let her guard down at the calm way the woman spoke her name.

Katara's brow furrowed for a moment, and she considered. She _was _feeling rather thirsty. And tea would be nice, but the Corporal was probably just playing with her. "No thank you," she replied calmly, wiping the worry from her own face and letting her features harden again. She'd played poker with the great Toph Bei Fong; she wouldn't let up. "I don't drink tea," she added hesitantly.

Su's sickly smile flickered up a notch, to a slight smirk. "You are a _terrible _liar," she stated, every part of her motionless, bar for her mouth. She showed barely any emotion at all; Katara could only barely sense the smug demeanor by that tiny smirk. Su's smirk dropped back to that level smile and she reached to the tea set on one side of the desk. "I can tell," she began, taking two wooden cups from the tray, "that all this change has unsettled many of the students. Wouldn't you agree, Katara?"

Blue eyes fell on the teapot she lifted away from its tray, and the flow of the water in the pot as Corporal Su poured them each a cup of what smelled like sweet chamomile tea. Katara blinked a few times and then allowed her mind to work on Su's words. "Uh … sure. I mean, yeah," she heard herself replying, but didn't feel as if her mind had put the words together.

Su seemed charmed by this, and she put the teapot down to push one of the wooden cups toward Katara. "I understand," the Corporal breathed a sigh, but not of boredom or fatigue, "In fact, many of the Dai Li also have experience this turbulence; after all, they've left their home to come to America for their cause, you see. Many of them miss their families."

Katara was confused again. Why was this woman telling her all this? What was she trying to do? She eyed the cup of tea, thinking. Su was just trying to get her to open up. She had an agenda, and a goal. Katara was just a pawn in their game, and they planned to get information from her. The blue-eyed girl clenched her teeth in her head. She wouldn't let up.

When Katara didn't respond, Su looked surprised for a split moment, and then continued. "Is there anything troubling you, Katara? You can trust me, you know."

The Marina girl lifted her eyes from the cup to the corporal, and she glared daggers at her.

One of the corporal's perfectly shaped brows arched and the corners of her mouth tilted further upward. "A boy, perhaps?" she queried, and then she let a short breath out as she lifted her cup of tea to her mouth and sipped it. The wooden cup made a discreet clacking noise on the desk when she put it down again. "I understand the new rules for inter-student relations must be hard to understand."

Katara remained nonplussed, and if she reacted at all, the corporal didn't notice it. Indeed, she wanted to know the reasoning behind the new rules on dating; what could the Dai Li possibly stand to gain by keeping people like Sokka and Suki apart? Katara kept her mouth shut, unwilling to give the woman any power over her. She wouldn't let the corporal into her head.

"Well, you see," Corporal Su began breathily, "The Dai Li are lovers of tradition; it has always been this way," she leant back in her chair, "We come from a time when a man would ask the permission of a girl's father before courting her, and offer a certain amount of sacrifice to her family before they could marry. Some cultures would allow marriage at the age of fifteen, due to shorter lifespan, but most societies of that time set the rule that only adults over eighteen were allowed to marry.

"At this time, a woman had enough self-respect to save her virginity for her husband," Su continued, hoping to get a reaction from Katara.

Katara just wore a mildly surprised expression.

Again, the corporal looked intrigued, before continuing her explanation. "What we aim to do, in keeping the students from dating one another, is to return to that traditional practice. Of course, the Dai Li can impose many things, but not a change in cultural practice. We can only encourage that; and that is what the rule is for. It is to encourage a return to a more honorable courting system."

Not particularly focused on the dating thing - she'd find a way around that and they could just go and fuck themselves - Katara's mind had moved onto a more serious matter. Bending. No bending at all? Why, of course it was dangerous, but wouldn't it be safer to teach the earthbenders to control their abilities so they didn't rip the school up? Even if there were no other people able to teach the other elements, they could at least do that.

But Katara stayed silent on this. Corporal Su wouldn't get what she wanted from Katara.

* * *

><p>"It's official. I hate my Etiquette class," Lydia complained, leant against the trunk of the tree her new friends were hanging out around. She poked her plastic fork into her pasta salad and then popped a cherry tomato into her mouth with it. "Honestly; who do they think is buying their propaganda nonsense?" she asked into the warm summer air.<p>

Zuko scoffed from where he was sat in the shade, leant back on the heels of his hands. She was right; that class was basically just a session of propaganda, to try to get the students to side with the Dai Li. He said nothing, and lifted a hand from the grass to pluck a piece of duck from his cold, leftover Chinese food lunch and then chew on it for a moment. His mind turned to Katara. He hadn't seen her since after History class, and he was beginning to worry.

"Well, logically speaking, it's only smart for them to want to recruit supporters. Eventually rebellion with sprout and they'll want people on the inside to rat the rebels out," Sokka reasoned calmly, albeit with a mouthful of his prawn-mayo sandwich muffling his speech. Suki shot him a look of distaste from where she sat beside him, and reached over to lift his chin, shutting his mouth.

"Swallow before you speak, Sokka. You just gave us a nice view of half-eaten bread and seafood."

Sokka swallowed his mouthful and shot her a grin. "Yes, dear," he replied in a teasing, and yet thoughtful and subsequently happy tone of voice.

Suki whapped him on the arm, and returned to her position sat against the base of the tree. A tiny smile found its way to her face too.

On the other hand, Lydia seemed somewhat annoyed by the very idea of a rebellion; Zuko wasn't completely sure why, but he guessed it had something to do with her being afraid of facing the Dai Li. He supposed he was afraid of it too; they were a force to be reckoned with, and his swords weren't nearly enough to ward of even one agent. And there was nobody around to teach them how to bend the elements, which was probably their only hope.

He wished Aang were here. Aang would know what to do.

"Oh, there you guys are," Katara's voice rang out from nearby, and Zuko turned his head in her direction. She was approaching and tying her hair back at the same time, probably so she could eat. She took a seat on the grass, just out of Zuko's reach, opened her bag and drew out a store-bought chicken, bacon and tomato salad in a plastic contained from Wal-Mart or something.

Zuko arched a brow at her.

There was a moment of calm silence before Katara realized Zuko was staring at her, and she frowned and looked at him. "Why are you watching me eat?" she asked, the plastic fork in one hand aimed at the salad.

Zuko blinked at her. "What did the Dai Li want?" he held his hands in a 'what are you, stupid?' gesture.

Sokka, Suki and Lydia immediately honed in on Katara.

"What?"

"Huh?"

"Hang on, _what_?"

Katara shot Zuko a glare, which told him he wasn't supposed to have put that out in the open. He pulled an apologetic face, and she returned it with a futile, accepting expression, and then spoke. "Nothing," she answered sourly, her gaze moving back to her salad. She stabbed the fork through the salad and brought it to her mouth with a cherry tomato and some bacon skewered on it.

Zuko caught Sokka's look of disbelief, and considered telling him to drop it; that sour, quiet thing Katara was doing meant nobody was going to get answers from her. She didn't want to talk about it and that was that. Instead, Zuko shrugged at the Marina boy as if he didn't know what was eating at his sister.

"What happened with the Dai Li?" Sokka spoke up seriously.

Katara grumbled under her breath. "Nothing happened, Sokka. They just wanted me to talk to someone."

Lydia's eyes narrowed skeptically. "What, like a counseling thing?"

"Yeah, sure, let's go with that," Katara answered plainly.

Suki was the first to ward the subject away, catching her sister's unease and seeking to calm the younger girl. "So," Suki spoke up, eyes moving away from her friends and up toward the school to be sure nobody was within earshot. She nudged Sokka to get his attention, and then continued. "We spent the better part of the evening last night building a crib for the Cookie," she laid a hand on her belly proudly.

A smile took over Katara's face, all prior malaise disappearing; she really just was that good an actress. She chuckled warmheartedly, and seamlessly. "Isn't it a little early for that?" she gestured to Suki's belly, and then returned to her food, trying her best to keep that calm and happy face on.

"That's what I said," Suki agreed, shooting Sokka a glance.

Sokka pulled a face. "You can never be too prepared," his brows shot up and he took a long blink.

Zuko felt the corners of his mouth tug upward, but he didn't look at them. Instead, he glanced to Lydia, who seemed mildly surprised, as if she'd guessed at the idea of Suki being pregnant, and then he looked to Katara, whose smile had receded to a thoughtful and silent frown. Whatever the Corporal had wanted hadn't been good, Zuko surmised, and it ate at him the same way it did her.

* * *

><p>"Thank you, Master Pakku," Iroh bowed to the waterbending master, as the two stood near the secret door down into the underground tunnel beneath the house; a precaution Iroh's grandfather, Sozin, had put in during the wartime to protect his family. "Without your talents, I fear my niece may not have pulled through," one old gentleman smiled wanly at the other.<p>

Pakku took the first of the steps down into the darkness, not looking back as he spoke. "It was the least I could do, Grand Lotus Iroh, after you helped me find my Kana all those years ago. Consider it a repayment."

Iroh chuckled mirthfully. "You needn't repay me for that, Pakku; only a heartless fiend would keep apart two souls like you and your beloved."

Pakku looked over his shoulder, smiled, nodded, then moved down into the darkness. Over his shoulder, he called out; "May we see order restored soon, Grand Lotus."

Iroh didn't bother to answer, as Pakku was moving into the tunnel, too far to hear him. He smiled thoughtfully, and then frowned. "I hope so," he murmured to himself.

* * *

><p>Curfew fell before nighttime did; as per the new usual. Hours passed like sand in a sieve to Zuko, so slowly he almost thought time was moving backward, just to piss him off. Beyond the note he and Katara had agreed via, they had decided they would meet at nine o'clock in particular. They would have enough time to talk, and enough time to do some good, before sneaking back into their homes and getting as good night's sleep; or at least, Katara would.<p>

At three, Zuko popped another pill of methylphenidate to stay awake.

Word passed through the house that Azula was awake, but neither Iroh nor Ursa would let him in to see her. When he asked why, they told him her memories were coming sporadically, and they didn't want to rush her recovery. Zuko couldn't make sense of any of that, but he agreed to stay away nonetheless.

Four o'clock came sure enough, and five came a little less willingly. Six was dead-set on staying away, but eventually came too. Seven had dug its heels into the dirt to keep away, and arrived begrudgingly, almost threatening to move away again. At eight, Zuko guessed it was close enough to start getting ready.

Being awake, he noted, gave you way too much spare time. Any other day, he'd have fallen asleep on the couch to waste some time.

He found the spot in the attic where he had hidden his Blue Spirit attire and arms, and quickly changed into them. The air outside had cooled with nightfall, so hopefully he wouldn't sweat with a whole second layer of clothing on. He waited, at the ready, until quarter to nine, and then slipped through the skylight to head toward the assigned meeting place. Knowing he'd be out late, Zuko took another methylphenidate capsule before leaving.

Zuko arrived, as expected, before Katara, unspotted by the Dai Li and without trouble - though he doubted this calmness would last for long. A cool white glow bounced off the flat roof of the skyscraper under his feet, and Zuko recalled the night he and Katara had spoken about the moon. That night had been a three-quarter moon, he could remember, whereas this one was almost full.

"Are you sure nobody spotted you?" Katara's voice piqued his attention, and he turned around to see her emerging from the shadow of another building.

The moon bounced off her figure appearing from the darkness, and while her face was masked from the nose up, her eyes told him what he needed to know about her emotions. A deep-seated anxiety had buried itself in her mind, and a weight rested on her shoulders; she moved stiffly and tensely, much of the grace she'd once held dissipated in the course of the recent turmoil.

The mask of the Blue Spirit nodded in reply, and a gloved hand went up to unfasten it. The Painted Lady raised a hand and shut her eyes. "Don't take it off," she breathed, her shoulders slumped in a defeated kind of exhaustion. She opened her sparkling cerulean orbs again as his hand went back down, and the Blue Spirit tilted his head in confusion. Catching this, Katara drew nearer. "I want to kiss you," she affirmed, "But I'm not going to risk your safety for it."

Zuko smiled wanly under his mask and nodded in agreement. His golden eyes searched hers as she drew nearer, toward him. He felt her leather-clad hand take his, and he squeezed it comfortingly. She seemed tired, troubled and everything between. Zuko's hand let go of hers, and he turned to face her; opened his arms to welcome her for a hug. Katara slid into his arms and put one masked side of her face against the soft spot above the flat of his chest, as he put one side of his jaw against the side of her head, arms wrapping around her.

The Blue Spirit sighed, squeezing her into a tight embrace. "Are you okay?" his voice rasped, muted and echoed by the wooden mask.

Katara, whose face was contorted in indecision and worry and fear, shook her head against him. "No," she answered, too tired to cry, but not strong enough to smile. "I'm exhausted."

Zuko exhaled through his nose, and placed a gloved hand on her back, his thumb running across the thin material of her midnight black top. "I know. And it hasn't even started yet."

Katara pulled back, and frowned at him. She'd known they would fight it for a while - it was the unspoken truth that they both knew; heck, it was the unspoken truth that _everyone _knew. Jet Miller, for one, they both knew, was already fighting it, judging by the cuts and bruises he was hiding with long sleeves and smirks. Her brows tilted and her worry became tragically apparent. She drew a breath and took a long blink. "We're really going to do this, then."

Zuko placed his hands on her upper arms and squeezed reassuringly. "We don't have a choice; this is our playground. We grew up here; we got drunk and had ice cream sodas here, and we snuck onto school property to play baseball here. We finally got up the nerve to fall in love here," at this a smile ghosted across Katara's features, and in turn, across Zuko's. One gloved hand came up from Katara's arm to caress her cheek. "For that, I'd fight until my very last breath."

A shiver ran the length of Katara's spine and she nodded, once, a smirk playing at the corners of her mouth. "Alright then," she agreed, blue eyes falling on gold, "Let's do this."

Zuko smiled and pulled her in for another hug, but she froze in surprise at a rush of a sound fluttering from behind him. On instinct, Zuko grasped her arm and pulled her behind his back as he turned toward the fluttering sound. Katara's hands went to her guns, and Zuko's went to his shoulder to draw his swords. The moonlight drifted across a face shaded by a hood, and a figure holding a large glider contraption, with some kind of animal taking its place on his shoulder.

The figure reached up and pushed his hood back, and a resonating exhale of relief escaped the two vigilantes. Aang smiled brightly, his tone somehow portraying both a smug suspicion and an unassuming innocence. "Sorry, am I interrupting?" he asked, as the wings of his glider shutting on the click of a wooden button on the relic.

Zuko looked over his shoulder to Katara, where a happy and thoughtful grin was growing on her face. "Actually, Aang … I think you're right on time."

And so it began.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Alright then! Finally finished this chapter! I solemnly swear this will not be posted until I finish the next chapter, lest I have to smack myself stupid. Honestly, I can't believe I did that last time. That was a close one! The only way I can possibly keep updating this fast is if I keep chapters close to upload; if I'm ahead.**

**Anyway, I really should write a whole thing about each individual part of this chapter, but it's so long, and I'm so tired that I really just need a break right now. Seriously.**

**Lyrics are fromSimon & Garfunkel's 'song with a spanish name I can't remember' :P**

**REVIEW!  
><strong>


	8. What You Do To Me Is Everything

"_Hi," Toph sat before the strangers, her fingers twitching nervously as she held them in front of her, her sleeves having drooped over her knuckles, "My name is Toph, I'm fourteen, and … I'm an alcoholic," she announced nervously, painfully aware of the pitying gazes the other attendees of the meeting were giving her. She drew a sigh and smiled awkwardly. "It's the start of day two for me, and I'm not going to have a drink today," she felt her ears heated, and she felt the anxiety written on her face, even if she couldn't see it._

_There was a scattered murmur of approval from the other people sitting in the class, and Toph's nervous smile softened slightly at this, before she sighed in seat, her mind enforcing her vow repetitively. She meant this; she wasn't going to have a drink today, as much as she wanted one. The Dai Li were looking all over for her, but they wouldn't find her here. She was safe here, and she could control herself here - the nearest bar was a treacherous uphill walk for a half-mile._

_Toph continued, both trying to inspire the others in the session as well as assure herself. "I've never been an alcoholic, before. I wasn't one until the Dai Li took over," Toph drew a breath, her hands fidgeting. "But I woke up one morning having forgotten a whole two weeks of my life, and … I know that rock-bottom has been a lot lower for some of you, but … that was really, really scary._

"_I mean, I've seen some scary shit, you know? I got kidnapped once, and I had people threaten to cut off my fingers and toes," Toph lifted a hand and rubbed at her face, and she heard some of the people sat around her gasping at the very idea, "But I don't think there's anything scarier than realizing where …" she paused and ran her tongue over her chapped lower lip, "… realizing where you're headed," she finished nervously._

_There was a pause, and Toph felt a hand take her shoulder and squeeze supportively. She smiled slightly._

"_So I'm taking it one day at a time," Toph began, and turned her head toward the hand squeezing her shoulder, shooting a smile in that direction, "And I'm not going to have a drink today."_

_There was a scattered applause, and there was nothing grand about the assembled alcoholics surrounding the teenager, but the understanding of others with the same problem, and the knowledge that she could stop if she wanted to reassured Toph. They were strangers, and that was probably the best thing about them; she didn't have to care what they had to say, but she did just the same. She was free to think and feel whatever she wanted, and she wondered if this was just the right kind of freedom for her right now._

* * *

><p>Jet winced at the pain in his right shoulder; he hadn't been out fighting the Dai Li for three nights now, but his battle ailments were still affecting him. His shoulder was wrenched and sore, covered in purplish-brown bruises, and a gash along the back of his calf had needed stitches - Smellerbee, who was an amateur medic, had fixed him up with a bent sewing needle and a thin guitar string. It wasn't the best job, but it was safer than going to a hospital.<p>

The rebel marched through the hall, shoving a smaller kid that was in his way to the sidelines to he could get through - honestly, why did freshmen always having to linger around in the way? - And he approached his locker with a tired expression on his face. He was absolutely exhausted; of course, this was probably true of most of the students here, losing sleep over the Dai Li, and panicking about their abilities jumping out, since they had no way to control them. Jet guessed he should consider himself lucky for not having bending powers, but the bruises and cuts on his body made him feel nothing of the sort.

A little extra power wouldn't have bothered him in the slightest during his last scuff with the Dai Li.

He grabbed the combination turner on his locker and began entering his code, and his muscles burnt at the precision work his fingers were doing. Jet furrowed his brow miserably; he could tell writing was going to be a pain in the ass today if his arm kept acting up this way. When he plucked open the flimsy door of his locker, he was first greeted by a couple of nudie pictures he had glued to the inside of his door, and he smirked reluctantly before looking into the locker itself.

There was a note in his locker, taped to the back wall of it. Someone had cracked his combination to get it there. Jet didn't reach for it, but instead read the words in thick sharpie marker. His head tilted in intrigue and he screwed up his face in concentration.

'**Jet Tybalt Miller. You've been invited to join the rebellion against Long Feng and the Dai Li. Tell no one, and watch for the three-fingered sign.'**

Jet felt confusion wash over his face as he reached in and tore the note from the back wall, slipped it into one of his books, and drew that book out. He slid the book into his rucksack, while removing the note and crumpling it in his hand. Three-fingered sign, huh? Whoever had this idea was smart; he spotted the beginnings of a secret code unknown to the Dai Li on the horizon with this 'three-fingered' sign.

He shut his locker and moved away from it, heading toward his homeroom without a trace of his satisfaction portrayed by his expression. Now he just had to keep his eyes open.

* * *

><p>Lydia yawned into her hand and approached her locker with a fatigued scowl on her face. She'd had a long argument with Alistair this morning over his unwavering desire to fight against the Dai Li. Honestly; there was no point. They'd just as well just get used to things the way they were and save themselves a lot of bloodshed and tragedy. Perhaps Lydia was just afraid. That was what Alistair had said, wasn't it? That she was acting like a scared child.<p>

'_Selfish halfwit,' _Lydia's mind cursed angrily, repeating the words she wished she'd screamed at him in the moment, _'Go and get yourself slaughtered. See if I give a damn.' _She pulled a face; that retort had only come to her that morning, while driving to school as she muttered irately about the argument.

Lydia grabbed her locker door, turned the combination lock with memorized movements and ease, and pulled open the door of it to grab her books. She paused at a piece of notepaper taped to the back of her locker, however. Words in thick sharpie ink and unfamiliar handwriting jumped at her, and she frowned hard. Some idiot thought it was funny to break people's codes and violate their privacy to leave stupid notes, huh? Well she'd make sure whoever had …

She paused and frowned, tilting her head and running her eyes over the letters.

'**Lydia Roxanne Roberts. You've been invited to join the rebellion against Long Feng and the Dai Li. Tell no one, and watch for the three-fingered sign.'**

The blonde blinked for a moment, reading those inky words over a few more times. Then she let out a small breath and drew out the books she'd been reaching for, sliding them across the aged aluminum of the bottom of her locker. With her inner forearm, she held the books to her chest and peered with scrutinizing eyes into her locker, at the note. Rebellion. This was fucking stupid; the Dai Li were unstoppable.

Why did nobody get that?

Lydia reached in and peeled the tape on the note from the back wall of her locker, and resignedly crumpled the paper into a ball in her hand. For a moment, the hard shell of anger faded and Lydia felt her insecurity and fear flash undeniably obviously across her face. Of course she wanted to live in a free world. Of course she did. But the risks … the risks were just too damned high! Alistair was right, of course, as usual. She was afraid; afraid of putting herself on the line for a lost cause, afraid of making things worse.

And more than anything else, she was afraid of losing him.

* * *

><p>"<em>This is the place?" Zuko murmured quietly into the darkened, empty room before him. Nearby, he could hear Katara walking toward the light switch, and Aang pushing furniture around. "How did the Dai Li not get in?" he stepped further into the dark, his feet scuffing on the hardwood flooring as the sound of a click was immediately followed up by light washing over the three teenagers in the abandoned gymnasium. "How did they not find this place when they took the school over?"<em>

_Katara, whose mask hung loosely on one shoulder, fastened around her neck, turned away from the lights and ran a cool blue gaze over the unused hall. This was what Toph had called 'the basement'; a place where kids got together and fought for money, titles, trading cards, pink slips and everything in between. It had been a secret club, known only to a certain few of the students, but like all the other clubs, it had died with democracy. "For starters, it's not on the school map, or on the blueprints, for some reason," she raised a hand and rubbed at her eyes tiredly. They'd been out all night robbing stores closed due to curfew, and redistributing food, medicine and clothes to the poor district._

_After settling this one thing, they could go home and go to sleep. The thought of sleep was appealing to Katara at this point. She was exhausted._

_Aang voiced his agreement, as he pushed some tables and chairs to the edges of the room; they'd probably been used for arm-wrestles or something. "Plus it's underground, so maybe they just didn't think to look down here. And the way in is pretty discreet and secret, which should come in handy," the Avatar pointed out; and he was right, of course. The way in was a hole in a wall hidden behind a shelving unit in the boys' locker room, down an unlit stairwell and through the only door that wasn't blocked off by rubble from building development._

_Zuko breathed a sigh, reaching up and ruffling his hair thoughtfully. His mask was tied to his belt-loop to be sure he didn't lose it; he couldn't be bothered to wear it indoors. He was boiling in his own skin as it was. "If the Dai Li find out, you realize we're all as good as dead, right?" he glanced first to Aang, his eyes warning, and then to Katara, his gaze somewhat pained and scared._

_Aang rounded on Zuko immediately. "They're not going to find out," he assured the older boy, his expression serious, "And we're going to defeat Long Feng," he added adamantly._

_Katara spoke up in a hesitant tone. "How can you be so sure, Aang? I mean, even if we got the whole school to join sides with us, is that really enough to fight off the Dai Li? Do you really think we can fight them without learning to use bending?" she raised a hand and looked at it for a moment, obviously thinking about her own bending abilities. Zuko fixed his gaze on her and wondered if she'd been able to do anything yet; like turn water to ice, or something._

"_I can teach airbenders to airbend; that much I know," Aang shifted his stare to Katara, who was watching him with sad blue eyes, "Katara - as much as I hate guns, we might need you to teach the students to aim and shoot. And Zuko, you can teach the able-bodied to fight with hand-to-hand combat and melee weapons - I've seen you in action," Aang's own eyes saddened and he looked aside, thinking of Toph. Toph would've been able to teach anyone to kick twelve asses at once. After a moment of consideration, Aang continued and looked to the others. "We have to try, no matter what."_

_Zuko nodded his agreement. "Alright," he reached to his waist and found the roll of notes in his belt and glanced to Katara. "Come on; let's get these posted."_

_These notes, of course, were not taped into every locker in the school - Zuko didn't know most of the kids here, for starters, but that wasn't the reason why - but into the lockers only of people the three of them knew for sure would not turn them over to the Dai Li for trying to start a revolt. Zuko just hoped, as he looked to Katara running beside him toward the secret link between this place and the school, that this went well. He hoped with every fiber of his being that this didn't backfire on them._

* * *

><p>Jin Territa sat down in her etiquette lesson and put her schoolbag down beside her seat, before lifting herself from it to adjust her uniform skirt so the plastic seat wasn't against her thighs. She'd been smart enough to ask one of the smoker kids if she could borrow their lighter so she could burn the note in her locker to dust, to make sure nobody would see it. She knew there was serious trouble for going against the Dai Li; she'd spent the better part of the last few nights rubbing ointments on freedom-fighting boyfriend's sore muscles and cuts.<p>

Jin kept her eyes open, looked up from her seat and surveyed the classroom, looking for that 'three-fingered sign'. Eventually, however, the room stilled and calmed once two Dai Li agents took the sides of the class and ran their eyes over the students. The class was mainly girls from Senior year, but Jin spotted a few exceptions like Katara Marina and Ty Lee Sisko from Junior year; girls, Jin noticed, were already quite well-mannered.

The etiquette teacher, a woman who went by the name of Ms. Ming, took her spot behind the desk at the head of the room and addressed the class. "Alright, girls, today we're going to try something new," she tilted her head and a smile took her face. It was a kind of smile that Jin didn't much care for; in fact, it unnerved her. "We'll be putting away pens and paper for today's lesson, and instead we'll be working with hypotheses - as etiquette is a rather widely-applied skill, and what you know on paper will never be as valuable as what you know by memory."

Jin had to agree that maybe the woman had a point with this; writing about proper bow depth had nothing to do with applying manners in the real world. Etiquette could have been a cool class to have with the right teacher and teaching system. With a teacher like the lovely drama teacher they'd had last year, etiquette would have been fun, and school would have been lovely too.

She could just imagine it now; Jet offering her an arm to escort her to class, or throwing a coat over a puddle for her to step over it …

"Miss Territa," the etiquette teacher cleared her throat sharply, snapping Jin out of her daydream. "Would you like to pay attention, perhaps?"

Jin blinked, blushed, bowed her head and apologized. "Sorry, Ms. Ming. It won't happen again."

This being what Ming wanted to hear, the teacher left her alone with a simple, "See that it doesn't," and then moved to a girl sat in the front of the class and asked for an example of something - Jin didn't quite know what, because she wasn't paying attention. The clatter of a pencil on the wooden flooring snapped Jin's attention to her left, and down to the floor, where first she saw a pencil on the floor, and then she saw a hand reaching down for it.

For a moment it was just a hand reaching for a pencil, and then Jin realized what it really was. On this hand, the pinkie, middle and index fingers were left extended, but the ring finger and thumb were tucked to the palm, holding one another away so that Jin could visibly see that the person was holding up three fingers, and three fingers alone at her. Jin's eyes followed the hand up the wrist and arm until she saw blue eyes fixed on her with a slight smile.

Katara Marina lifted her pencil from the floor and shot Jin a meaningful look - one she could only return with an affirming nod.

* * *

><p>Needless to say, Katara and Zuko were so busy on break time and between classes recruiting that they were unable to say much more to each other in passing than 'How many is that?' and the procrastinating 'See you later' that always really meant 'No time to talk now or any time soon but I really do want to talk to you'. The same went for talking to the others; they'd recruit their close and personal friends at home, because they had plenty of time out of school to do that.<p>

Suki, however, managed to pull Katara aside on break time, down into that fabled stairwell where that kid had been stabbed in the neck with a scissors, obviously with something on her mind. Katara immediately pushed aside all other things in her mind, and put the notepad in her hand with the list of names for the rebellion roster into her shoulder bag to give Suki her undivided attention, despite being busier than a bee in the spring.

"What's up?" Katara asked, giving her sister a smile that told the older girl that she was happy to have spent the day accomplishing things. The chatter of students veered away from this stairwell, almost as if there was a force field surrounding it, like they couldn't see it or something. Katara rocked restlessly on her feet, probably wanting to get back to her name collecting.

Suki watched her sister a moment and furrowed her brow. Maybe what she wanted to say would only wear down Katara's happiness; Suki knew it had been nearly impossible for Katara to get into a good mood with the images she ended up screaming over in her dreams, and the subsequently low quality of sleep she was having. But this had been biting at Suki for days now, and she needed to figure it out, and Katara was the only person she knew how to talk to about this. "I don't know what to do," Suki suddenly blurted.

Katara blinked, her smile faltering slightly. "Do about what?"

"The baby," Suki's expression softened to a worried look, "People are starting to figure it out, Katara; even Lydia guessed it, and you know how thick she is."

"I'm guessing I'm never supposed to repeat that …"

"Not even on your death bed," Suki agreed, before continuing, "I'm thinking … I'm thinking of telling the Dai Li."

Katara's face twisted in horror at her sister. "What? Are you crazy? What the fuck kind of-," Suki's hand smacked over the younger girl's mouth and Katara immediately fell silent, eyes still bulged in confusion and wonder. Suki's concerns poured in via eye contact; if the Dai Li figured it out on their own, they might be vindictive. Everyone knew how highly they valued pushing their ideals on others, and if they decided her having a baby was improper, they might … they might … Katara brought a hand to her face and pulled Suki's palm from her mouth. "Okay," Katara breathed, "I get where you're coming from."

Suki swallowed hard and wrapped her arms around herself. "Tell me what I should do, Katara," she whispered worriedly. "I'm … I'm scared they'll …"

Katara shook her head as a sign that Suki didn't need to go on. "There's a chance going to them with your problem will make them feel like the good guy, and want to maintain that position, but … I still think it's too risky. I can only guess you haven't gone to Sokka with this idea," at this, Suki's gaze was answer enough. Katara watched Suki for a moment, thoughtful and pensive. Then she sighed heavily, and reluctantly spoke. "Alright, don't go to the Dai Li, no matter what, okay? You, me and Sokka are going to sit down together tonight and we're going to find a way for you two to disappear."

Suki opened her mouth to protest, not wanting to leave.

"You're not going anywhere. You're just going to slip under the radar," Katara raised a hand to Suki's shoulder and squeezed. "You trust me?"

Her sister nodded reluctantly, and then exhaled heavily, one hand going to her temple. "Oh, fuck, things are bad …"

Katara grabbed Suki's upper arms and pulled her in for a hug that was instinctively returned. Suki's arms slid around Katara's back, and Katara's grasp had already enveloped her sister in a warm and reassuring hug. Katara rubbed a soothing circle on Suki's back, patted once and whispered in a hushed tone. "They're going to get better," Katara stated plainly, her own wavering confidence apparent in her voice, "But whatever happens, you and Sokka, and the Cookie …" Katara pulled back to see Suki's eyes pouring into hers, "… you're going to be safe, no matter what. Okay? I'll make sure of it."

* * *

><p>"Hey," Zuko greeted, approaching Katara, who was leant against the wall in the corridor leading toward the doors into the locker rooms on lunchtime. Katara flashed him a weary smile and he returned it with one of his own. "That's twenty-eight so far, right?" he stepped close and took a spot beside her, pressing his back to the wall near her. Katara just nodded and her smile dropped before she glanced sideways at him with concern apparent in her gaze. Zuko paused and frowned at her. "What's up?" he asked quietly, glancing back the way he'd come to be sure there was no one around; this area was pretty abandoned during lunch hour, so they didn't really have to worry.<p>

Katara sighed and took a long blink. "I'll tell you once we get in," she replied, her mood turbulent and her mind troubled. Zuko guessed this was probably for the best; if it was something about their project to take down the Dai Li's rapidly-growing empire, it would be smart to talk about it where they were absolutely sure the Dai Li weren't around.

When the footsteps of a crowd echoed through the hall, down the stairwell toward them, they looked up to see Jin Territa, Jet Miller and his gang, Yue Chander, Song MacFarlane and Haru Espinosa leading a small crowd of students prepared to fight for their freedom. Katara and Zuko exchanged glances, nodded affirmatively at one another - almost everyone they'd recruited was present, and the only missing party was Lydia, who wouldn't go to the Dai Li no matter what - and then Katara drew the hairpin from her hair and pushed away from the wall to pick the lock into the boys' locker room.

Seconds later, the door was open, and Aang, who had been already inside was greeting everyone and directing them through the hole in the wall and telling them how to get down to the basement gymnasium. Katara closed the door behind them and locked it, making sure nobody would spot anything amiss. Then she pulled Zuko aside, into the shower stalls for privacy.

"I need your help to make Suki and my brother disappear," she told him sharply, and quietly. "I'd have asked Kelly, but she's gone. She left," Katara's hard expression may have faltered, but Zuko wasn't sure about it.

Zuko nodded immediately, knowing why she wanted them hidden from the Dai Li - she didn't want to risk anything happening to her people. She wanted them safe, and the safest place she could think of was under the radar. "Alright," he agreed swiftly, lifting a hand to his chin and rubbing thoughtfully. Toph really would've been an asset in finding a way to make them disappear, but as it was, her expertise was something they didn't have. "I think I know where we can send them, where nobody will find them."

Katara's brow tilted and she frowned. "Is it nearby?" she asked hopefully.

Zuko pulled an apologetic face. "No, but it's the safest place I can think of," he felt his own sadness at this appear on his face; maybe he didn't completely get along with Sokka all the time, but they were still friends, and the idea of having their group split apart even more was daunting. "My family has an old beach-house on a private island off the coast. The only way to interact is via messenger bird; my uncle has some. You'll still be able to send letters back and forth."

Katara exhaled, frowning hard. "It's not fair," she murmured, lifting a hand and pressing her palm to her forehead. "They shouldn't have to leave their home to be safe. They shouldn't have to leave their family."

Zuko nodded an agreement. "No. It's not fair," he seconded, then put his hand on her shoulder. "But if there's one thing we know from these past six months is that life isn't fair, right?" he smiled sadly, squeezed her shoulder and stroked it through the fabric of her shirt, with his thumb. "And it won't be for too long. If all goes well, we could have this whole thing fixed by the time Suki has the baby."

Katara smiled at him, thankful for these words. "Thanks, Zuko," she reached up and covered his hand on her shoulder with hers. She sighed. "I needed that."

The two followed Aang, and the beginnings of the rebellion.

* * *

><p>"Sokka," Suki spoke up, as they walked toward the jeep after final bell. School had just ended, and they just had to wait a while for Katara to come along. Sokka looked over the bonnet of the jeep at her as he unlocked the drivers' side door.<p>

He smiled brightly, as if the sound of his name on her lips was the only thing he could possibly want in the world. Suki wondered how it was possible for him to look at her like that every single time they crossed gazes. "Yes, dear?" he replied - this had become his new 'thing', along with calling Zuko 'Captain Asshole'. Suki couldn't honestly say she disliked him referring to her in such a way, but it did bother her sometimes. Sokka climbed into the driver's seat.

Suki climbed into the jeep and the two slammed their doors shut at the same moment. Satisfied that nobody would be able to hear them now, Suki glanced to Sokka, frowned and said, "I talked to Katara today. About you and me and the baby," she ran her tongue over her chapped lower lip, then brought a hand up and wiped it so it wouldn't get chapped again.

Sokka tilted his head, looking forward pensively, then nodded thoughtfully. "What about us and the baby?"

Suki leant back in her seat and sighed heavily, reaching down to the lever on the side of the seat and letting it recline so she could lie back, and she unbuttoned her skirt a little to give the Cookie some more room - seriously, those waistbands were extremely tight - before she glanced to him with her hands tucking themselves under her head. "About making sure we're safe," she explained, and at the curious look Sokka gave her, she continued, "You know the Dai Li aren't going to have good things to say about us having a baby."

Sokka frowned hard. "I know that," he agreed, "But … what do you mean 'making sure we're safe'? You're not talking about … about _abortion, _are you?" his face softened and his eyes widened as he thought aloud.

Suki's own eyes bulged. "No! God, fuck, of course not!" she dropped one hand from behind her head and laid it on her belly. "You know I think that whole practice is just _wrong, _Sokka; I can't believe you'd even-,"

"I wasn't, I was just …" Sokka trailed off in futility, sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "What do you mean, Suki?"

Suki sighed again. "I was thinking about telling the Dai Li," she explained sharply, and then caught the horrified look on Sokka's face and moved forward, "But Katara says that's a bad idea, and … and that we need to get under the radar or something, to be safe from them. She says it wouldn't be too far away, but it would be until things get fixed. Until …"

"Until they save the world?" Sokka's face moved to a pensive apathy. "And what if they can't? What if we end up having to raise the Cookie in a cabin in the woods or some bull like that?" his brow furrowed and his hands kneaded on the steering wheel. The very idea was daunting; he couldn't imagine having to raise his child away from here, away from all the people he'd known since birth. Leaving Katara, and their father, and his home … "What then?" Sokka glanced to Suki, who was watching him anxiously.

Suki blinked a few times and then resigned herself to exhaling and looking out the window. She sat up and fixed her seat when she saw Katara peeking into the car from above her, with a cheerful smile on her face. Beside her, however, Zuko was standing, and Suki frowned as her seat clicked back into place. Why was Zuko here?

Katara opened the back door of the jeep and climbed in. "Zuko's coming with us; he knows where you guys can stay," she explained, as she buckled herself in and adjusted her uniform skirt so the leather seat wasn't against her thighs. The scarred teen climbed in beside her and slammed the door shut, glancing from Suki to Sokka.

"Have you guys already … talked about it?" Zuko shot Katara a look, having guessed she'd forgotten about asking them that. He buckled himself into the seat and fixed his eyes on Sokka, who looked pretty frustrated, and wondered if he'd set him off. Then he realized he had, went to backpedal, only to be cut off before he could do so.

Katara's brother looked over his shoulder to Zuko. "Suki just sprung it on me."

Zuko pulled a face and caught Katara glaring at him in his peripheral vision. "Oh … uh … right."

The jeep pulled out of the parking lot, and Suki immediately went on the defensive, leaving the two in the back pulling faces of anxiety. Suki tried first to reason with Sokka, telling him that staying here was stupid and that people would figure it out if they didn't do something about it. She told him that if the Dai Li guessed it - and they would - they could get into serious trouble, because the Dai Li were crazy murdering psychopaths.

Sokka argued that the Dai Li being crazy murdering psychopaths was not _his _fault, and why should _he _have to leave his family and his home.

Suki groaned out at his careless and self-centeredness, before loudly stating that he could make a sacrifice or two to protect the life of his unborn child.

Indignant, Sokka proclaimed that he had already sacrificed many things for the Cookie; like he'd torn down nearly every poster on his bedroom wall, and actually sent his laundry downstairs for a change, and he'd built a crib, and he'd given up spreading across the entire bed, and he'd stopped drinking anything but beer, and he'd-

His long-term partner told him to slow down - his driving was making her nervous - before telling him he _always _drove too goddamned fast, and was he _trying to kill them, _and maybe he was _trying _to kill their baby, since he was so reluctant to make sacrifices for their child.

Sokka exclaimed that it was in no way fair for her to say such a thing; he was fully prepared to sacrifice his life for the baby, but he just wanted to stay close to his family, and his home, and was that really _too much _to want? He then said it was also not fair for her to say he _always _drove too fast, because he was one of the slowest drivers on the road after his accident with that drunk driver and the drag racer-

The pregnant party shouted at him again to slow _the fuck _down, and she didn't care if he was a stupid driver while she and the baby weren't in the car with him, but she'd be damned if he killed them being an asshole. She told him if he ran a red light and got pulled over by the Dai Li traffic wardens - yes, they existed - she would let him spend the night in jail.

Sokka immediately told her not to use the baby as a _card to play _every time they got into an argument, because the Cookie was nothing to do with the way he drove, and if she didn't like it she could just drive _herself _home after school. He said he _wasn't _going too fast, and that he was at the speed limit, so there, and '_Not everyone drives like a granny'._

While all this was going on, Katara and Zuko found themselves also unnerved by the speed of Sokka's driving, as they were by the couple's incessant arguing. The two wore annoyed and tense expressions that showed to one another that they really would rather to not die because these two were busy arguing. At the same time, they didn't want to get involved, lest anyone think they were picking sides, so they shut up and hoped to hell that Sokka didn't run the car into a building.

* * *

><p>The two were still arguing when the party got to the Marina hacienda, and immediately argued themselves into their wing of the upstairs, shouting their heads off while packing their things to leave. Katara stood at the bottom of the stairs in a stupor over how the hell that had just happened. Honestly; Sokka didn't even want to go, and yet he was packing, and Suki was angry as hell, but she was choosing to stay in the same room as him.<p>

"What's all the shouting about?" Katara heard her father's voice calling from the living room.

She gestured to Zuko to follow her as she moved toward the voice. The two stood in the doorway and once there, Katara saw Gran-Gran and Pakku sitting with Hakoda, all three with cups of tea in their hands. Katara smiled at them and pulled an apologetic face. She supposed they needed to know now - before Sokka and Suki left - so they could say their goodbyes, in case it was a while before they could come back.

Katara looked to Zuko and spoke quietly. "There's a Yellow Pages in the library."

Zuko nodded agreeably and left to find a boat hire center to take Suki and Sokka to the island; there was a yacht already there, and the place was tended by caretakers who could technically come and pick them up, but they didn't want anyone to know what was going on until Sokka and Suki were long gone.

At the strange happenings in action, Hakoda frowned in confusion as his daughter stepped into the room and took a seat next to him. "Is something going on, Katara?"

Katara nodded quickly. "Yeah, there is. We're taking Sokka and Suki somewhere to hide from the Dai Li."

Hakoda's eyes immediately widened, and Gran-Gran and Pakku exchanged thoughtfully glances. Katara's father looked to Kana, and then to Pakku, then back to his daughter. He'd known the two were having a baby, and Hakoda had at first had to try not to pass judgment and be supportive, but eventually he'd come to terms with it and in fact, had come to like Suki very much. She was a really nice girl, and he knew Sokka could do no better than her. His brow furrowed. He understood; it all made sense, of course. "I see."

Katara's own sadness washed over her face and she reached out, putting a hand on her father's upper arm. "It's not forever, dad."

Hakoda smiled sadly and nodded. "When are they leaving?" he asked hoarsely; Katara's heart nearly broke at the sound of her father's voice cracking.

The blue-eyed girl blinked at her father for a moment and then tentatively answered, "Tonight, hopefully. When it's dark," she explained, before moving her gaze to her grandmother and step-grandfather.

Kana looked saddened, and Pakku looked intrigued.

Katara's stare moved back to Hakoda when her father got up and moved toward the doorway. "If you'll excuse me," he turned and bowed his head to Pakku and Kana, "I think I need a word with my son."

Pakku and Kana both offered nods, and Hakoda left the room. Katara watched his back as he disappeared up the stairs, blinking in surprise. What was he planning to do? Shout? Cry? Hug Sokka and Suki and then give Sokka some kind sentimental item, like a baseball glove from his childhood? Katara cursed herself for all the cliché movies she'd been watching lately. Dad wasn't that cheesy.

"Actually, Katara," Pakku moved toward the edge of his seat to get up. "I've been meaning to talk to you about something rather important."

Katara's brow furrowed. "I, uh … I'm supposed to be helping Zuko plan out-,"

Kana raised a hand, effectively silencing Katara. "Don't worry. I'll keep your boyfriend busy." She and Pakku shared a knowing look.

Before Katara could protest, her step-grandfather was walking toward the door and gesturing for her to follow. Not knowing what else to do, Katara complied.

* * *

><p>"What did you want to talk to me about, Pakku?" Katara asked, once she shut the patio doors behind them and they were stood on the back patio, under the sunshine outside. A light breeze crossed Katara's shoulders and swept her hair into her face. She brushed her hair out of the way and fixed her eyes on where Pakku was crossing the stone tiled patio to the fountain.<p>

Pakku turned to face her, his arms crossed. "Your fever. You're aware of your waterbending abilities, aren't you?" he asked rather bluntly.

Katara frowned almost immediately. "Of course I am. What about them?"

Pakku's face hardened and his eyes narrowed. "How would you like to learn to use them?" he smirked slightly, before he glanced past her and into the house, to be sure Hakoda wasn't watching, or listening; her father had expressly forbidden him from teaching Katara to use such dangerous skills, once he'd gotten over the initial shock of Pakku splashing his face with water from the faucet with only the flick of a wrist.

Katara watched him suspiciously, putting her hands on her hips. "Use them for _what_?" she asked in a tone mixed of curiosity and intrigue. "To fight?" she added hopefully, the corners of her mouth tweak up. One of her step-grandfather's brows went up in surprise; Katara guessed he was impressed with her _not _being shocked to discover he knew about the abilities. And she wasn't. Well, she was, but she never gave him the upper hand, ever. Since he'd married her grandmother a year after her mother's death, Katara had learnt never to show him her weak side; Pakku had a competitive streak, and it usually brought out Katara's, too.

Pakku smirked in amusement. "Of course," he agreed, before adding tauntingly, "Unless you'd rather learn to heal."

Katara scoffed. "As if," she retorted, her own smirk on her face, and then she narrowed her eyes, the wheels of her mind turning. "If you really can waterbend … show me."

Her elder tilted his head back and laughed out loud. Katara's mood clouded irritably as he brought his gaze back down and let it fall on her. "Now why would I do something like that?"

The marina girl clenched her teeth and then snapped, "Well, you offered," she reminded him irately, "to teach me. How do I know you really know how to bend the water? Maybe you're just talking shit to get me to run errands for you."

Pakku chuckled again. "You're perceptive as ever, Katara," he shook his head in good humor, his hands held behind his back winding a discreet pattern as the water from the fountain climbed the air toward them. He sharply swung one arm around his body toward her, while sinking into a loose stance by bending his knees.

Katara's eyes widened and she reached up to stop the water by some second instinct born in her with the activation of her elemental abilities, but the water still swerved in a soft, arching blob of a shape before washing over Katara and soaking her from head to toe. She grumbled under her breath and reached up to wipe her face.

Katara stared at him with an annoyed expression, as water dripped from her uniform and hair.

Pakku exited his stance, dusted himself off and allowed his smirk to fall back to an amused smile. "Lesson one," he walked toward her, and then passed her, looking over his shoulder to meet her eyes. "Don't teach your grandfather to suck eggs," he chortled, before grabbing the door handle and letting himself back into the house, leaving her standing rather irately on the patio.

* * *

><p>Hakoda peeked into the room first, caught sight of Suki packing suitcases for each of them, and let himself into the room. His eyes panned across the room and he spotted Sokka glumly taking apart the crib on one side of the room; it reminded him of the day he and Kya had struggled to get it apart after Katara had moved into her own bedroom. The boy looked up from his spot on the floor, his hard expression softening once he set eyes on his father.<p>

"Dad," he breathed in confusion, "What's- … What are you doing up here?" he asked awkwardly.

Hakoda smiled first at Sokka, and then to Suki, who was still packing the suitcases, barely offering him a glance. When she noticed him watching her, she looked up and fixed her gaze on him. Once he had her attention, Hakoda bowed his head subtly. "Do you mind if I steal Sokka for a few hours?" he asked, hands in his pockets.

Suki tilted her head in confusion. "A few hours?" she asked curiously. That was a while to ask, didn't he think?

Hakoda shrugged. "Katara told me what was going on. I mean, if you need him, I don't mind, but …" Hakoda noted his own genius, playing Suki's hostility toward Sokka to his advantage.

"No," Suki answered quickly, "I've got this," she gestured to the suitcases, "And I'm sure between me, Katara and Zuko, we can figure out how to get that thing apart," she threw her arm toward where Sokka was taking apart the crib.

Sokka glanced to Suki, with a hurt look on his face, and then he pushed the crib away and got to his feet. He approached his father and the two left the room, closing the door behind them. Once they were halfway down the stairs, Sokka sighed heavily. "Was mom ever this difficult?" he asked suddenly, reaching up and tiredly rubbing the back of his neck.

Hakoda sighed too. "You have no idea," he shook his head and chuckled breathily. "Don't worry about it, son," the two stopped at the bottom step of the staircase. "You'll survive it. Hey, I did it, right?" he gestured to himself, laughed and smiled. "And you've got five times the savvy I had at your age!"

Sokka smiled at this, and they moved toward the door down into the basement. He wondered what was in the basement that they were going to get, but he didn't ask; whatever his dad was up to couldn't be worse than sticking around with Suki and listening to her bring up every single mistake he'd made in the past two years. Once they got to the door, Hakoda opened it, grabbed the light-switch, pulled on it, and light flooded the dark space ahead.

Hakoda gestured to Sokka to stay where he was, and disappeared into the basement. Sokka waited for a minute or two, thinking about the shit he'd gotten himself into with Suki. He loved her, yeah, but it would be nice not to feel like an old married couple at sixteen. He was on the verge of shouting down to his dad to ask if he needed help when the older man came jogging up the steps toward Sokka, with two aging hunting rifles under one arm.

Sokka stared at his dad; they hadn't been hunting since before mom had died, and that was … that was _ages _ago. "What are you-," he flinched as his father tossed one of the guns at him, and he held his hands open, turning his face away and hoping it didn't smash him in the jaw or something. It jittered around in his hands for a moment before he got a grip on it. "Ah!"

Hakoda clapped his wary and alert son on the shoulder. "Come on; let's see if you shoot as straight as your sister," he held his rifle over one shoulder, and he gestured to the study, where they would clean the aging guns and make them good as new, before disappearing for hours to do man things.

* * *

><p>"Zuko," Katara marched into the library, her hands working a towel around her head and shaking frantically to get her hair dry, her soaking uniform jacket dripping on the carpet from where it was draped on her shoulder. She spotted Zuko sitting at the table in the middle of the room flicking through the Yellow Pages, and blinked for a moment. "Bring that upstairs; I want to talk to you."<p>

"Sure," Zuko answered without looking, picking up the directory and getting up, holding it in one hand. His eyes flicked up from the book to Katara, where he saw her standing near the door with her clothes soaking wet, and subsequently stuck to her. First he took a moment to admire this, and then walked toward her. "What happened to you?" he smirked, amused.

Katara rolled her cerulean eyes at him. "Tell you when we get upstairs," she jerked her head in the direction of the staircase, and the two headed up to her room.

They shut the door behind them and although it was still light outside, Katara turned on the lights. Ollie, who had been sleeping on the bed, stretched to life and then sat up, tilting his head and wagging his tail at Katara. The blue-eyed girl smiled brightly and approached the bed to put her hand on Ollie's head. Ollie blinked brightly as she petted him, and then did something close to _leaning _to one side to peer around her, to where Zuko was taking a discreet peek at the way Katara's white uniform shirt was sticking to her toned back, and the bra strap underneath it.

Zuko shot the dog a confused look; was it … was that a _scolding _look the dog was giving him? Zuko turned away from it, rather annoyed and unnerved by that look. If anything, Katara's attitude was rubbing off on that puppy. The scarred teen lifted the Yellow Pages again, opened it, and returned to searching for boat hire services.

"Anyway," Katara tossed the towel to the bed and began untying the dark green ribbon-tie under her collar, "What I wanted to tell you is that I think I've found a way to learn to waterbend," she looked over her shoulder and saw Zuko peeking up from the directory.

Zuko blinked at her for a moment. "How?" he asked, her brow furrowing.

Katara shrugged, sliding the wet ribbon from her collar and dropping it on the bed. "From Pakku. I don't know the details, but I know he won't tell me anything if I start asking. Either way, if he holds up his end of the deal, I think I could learn some useful techniques; I mean, I can already make a ball like that creepy lady at the circus did …" Katara paused, realized her mistake, then glanced to Zuko, hoping he hadn't noticed. He had, and he was staring at her now.

Zuko's good brow shot up. "What creepy lady at the circus?" he tilted his head, "You mean, when _I _took you to the circus?"

Katara nodded, fingers working at the top button of her school shirt, and then the second. "There was this waterbender there; an old woman. I mean, at the time I didn't know what it was - I thought it was some kind of magic show - but what she did was beautiful. And at the same time … not," she added thoughtfully, a frown taking her face as the bottom button of her shirt came undone. Katara sighed, peeling the wet fabric from her shoulders as she moved into the en-suite to get changed.

Zuko thought on this for a moment and then called into the en-suite. "What do you mean?" he asked, having settled on a boat hire service ad that he thought was reliable.

"I don't really know how to explain it," Katara's voice called back - Zuko heard the wet fabric of her skirt slide down her legs (not that he was listening for that or anything) - in a pensive tone, "She just held out these floating, glowing orbs of water. I can't make mine glow like that, but it's pretty close. It was like in The Dark Tower; when Rhea has part of Maerlyn's Rainbow."

Zuko made a noise under his breath, understanding what she meant. "I think I know what you mean."

He heard another article of Katara's wet clothing getting hung over the radiator, as she spoke again. "I mean, it was that glow. I _wanted _it; and not in a good way," Katara explained breathily, and she made a sound like she was either struggling to get an article of clothing off, or to get one on; just a tiny gasp of a tinier struggle. But for Zuko, it was a good noise. And what she was saying wasn't too bad either. Dammit; why did she do this to him? She was probably doing it on purpose. "I asked if I could hold it, and then she said … 'only a woman of the water can hold this, little girl'. Jokes' on her, huh?" Katara laughed under her breath. "Zuko?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah," Zuko forced a laugh and lifted a hand to rub the back of his neck, fighting off the blush on his face.

Katara sounded amused from inside, and then paused for a moment before asking casually, "Hey, could you do me a favor? Would you grab me some clothes? I don't keep a set in the bathroom. I really should," she thought aloud, and then Zuko heard her making a little noise like she was stretching. He could picture it; her in the buff, with her arms high above her head, her chin tilted back rapturously, and her skin taut on her toned body … "Would you?"

Zuko blanched, his stomach jumping into his throat as he squeaked out, "Sure!" a little too enthusiastically. He gulped, shook his head and then repeated, "Sure," in as calm a voice as he could muster, before marching over to the walk-in closet and sliding open the door. He stepped in, took a look around and grabbed a red tank top on a hanger, wondering if she'd think he was trying to tart her up if he handed her a top like this. Then he noted that there were far worse things in here than this, so he went with it.

He grabbed her a pair of jeans, a leather belt and her leather jacket, and stepped out into the bedroom to approach the bathroom door. He rapped a knuckle on the door. Katara immediately cracked it open and slid a hand into view to take the clothes. He'd half expected her to peek her head out and show a little skin just to get him going, but he handed her the clothes and stepped back as she shut the door again.

There was some rustling for a moment, and then Katara cleared her throat mischievously.

"Uh, Zuko," Katara spoke up from inside, and Zuko swore he could hear her giggling on the inside, "I'm going to need some panties."

Zuko was not one for that kind of music, but at that moment, he swore he could heard The Lonely Island singing out smugly and annoyingly _'… And I __**jizzed, in, my pants **__...' _and he smacked a hand to his face, feeling a red hot blush on even his scarred cheek and cursing his secret girlfriend. She had to be doing this on purpose; down to the last detail. She'd probably even deliberately said 'panties' just for the fact that now he'd have to ask 'do you need a bra as well', and that 'panties' sounded a hell of a lot more promiscuous than 'underwear'.

She was playing a game with him. And _winning._

"Uh … right," Zuko replied awkwardly, and he looked around first, then saw a chest of drawers near the sliding door into the walk-in closet.

The scarred teenager crossed the room to the chest of drawers, stared at it in front of him for a moment, and took a breath that he let out carefully to be sure Katara didn't hear him. He seriously didn't want to let her win this sadistic game she was playing. One hand reached tentatively for one of the top drawers, and then took the knob of it, and slowly dragged it out until images of lace and satin filled his head, and something he'd _really _been struggling to suppress in his pants jumped again, and he spoke despite his resolve not to let her win.

"Holy _fuck …"_

Inside the en-suite, Katara was standing leant against the wall with one hand smacked on her mouth to keep herself from making any noise and breaking the façade of innocence. Why had she never played this before? This was _too _fucking funny! She had nearly lost it at the 'I'll be needing panties' moment - Zuko had just choked on his own breath in the most adorable noise she'd ever seen. For such a womanizer, he sure was dorky. A-dork-able.

Back with Zuko, he was poised over the drawer of lacy, satin bras with a stupid-as-shit expression on his face. He took a moment to feel sorry for himself that his girlfriend was a sadist, and then brought his hand to his face and squeezed the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. The golden-eyed boy cleared his throat and then called to her with as much dignity as he had left, "Do you … do you need a bra too?" he asked and then told himself he could've done a better job of that.

Katara called back, sounding humored. "Yes please!"

Zuko hung his head, shook it, then resignedly replied, "'Kay," and picked out the plainest one in the drawer - a simple white one with no lace or satin at all. It wasn't until he turned it in his hands and saw a Yankees emblem on one of the cups that he decided that this really _was _his favorite one in the bunch. He closed the drawer and opened the one beside it, revealing Katara's many varied pairs of panties. The heat on his cheeks was renewed once more.

He caught sight of a matching pair of panties for the bra - with the word 'Yankees' written across the back - grabbed it and quickly turned back to the bathroom. He held the two in one hand, marched back to the bathroom door and rapped his knuckles on it sharply. The door slowly cracked open and Katara's open palm appeared to take the underwear. Zuko put them in her hand without a word, and then turned to look away when she spoke.

"Hang on a sec," she giggled cheekily.

Zuko's good brow arched again, and he heard her search around in the room for a moment before the hand appeared again, and this time she was offering him something. Her secret boyfriend groaned out and swatted the box of tissues out of her hand. "Ha-fucking-ha, Katara; this is _really _fucking funny," he drawled sarcastically, apparently extremely annoyed with the bright red flush on his cheeks, ears and neck.

Katara burst out in laughter as the door clicked shut again, howling with giggles.

Zuko brought a fingertip to his temple and pressed gently on it. How had he ended up with her playing dumb games like this with him? Did he really deserve it? He hadn't played games like that with _her, _that was for shit-sure. Or maybe this was just her way of punishing him for that night he'd rejected her advances. Zuko winced thoughtfully. If that was the case, it wouldn't stop with silly games.

He looked up and saw that he'd left Katara's underwear drawer open. With a sigh, he crossed the room again to close it. When he got there and slid the drawer halfway closed, he noticed something that immediately caught his attention; the sound of the edge of card on wood. Zuko frowned and slid his hand into the drawer, feeling the underside of the top of the chest of drawers. Hidden in the back of the drawer, he felt the glossy side of a photograph touch his fingertips. He wouldn't have noticed it if his ears hadn't been as sharp as they were; it was well hidden.

He caught the photograph in his fingers and drew it out of the drawer, fixing his eyes on it. It was a picture of him; shirtless, even. He frowned immediately, eyes widening slightly. When had Katara _taken _this picture? This was from that day they'd all gone to the beach to watch the wipeouts at the surfing competition - he hadn't even known Katara had _had _a camera that day. It was a high-definition picture, and it had to have been taken straight after they'd gotten out of the water, because he was glistening with seawater, and his hair was all pushed back …

And then it hit him.

A huge grin spread on Zuko's face as he realized _why _she had a picture of him like this. He took the picture, slid the drawer shut and fanned the air with the picture absentmindedly. She was probably nearly dressed now, so he approached the bathroom door and held the picture in one hand, loosely, between his index and middle fingers. The door made a click and Zuko suppressed his grin.

He heard the dog sitting on the bed give a little whining noise of disapproval, and it just made it harder to hide his grin.

The door swung open and Katara stepped out, dressed in the clothes he'd handed over. She was shaking her hair dry, but stopped when she saw him standing in front of her with a smug look on his face. She frowned at him for a moment, and at her confusion, Zuko's smirk broke to the grin, and his hand came up, showing her a photograph of him soaking wet, shirtless on the beach.

Katara's smug expression dropped to a horrified one; her eyes shot wide open and the blush that had already been on her face deepened to one so red it was nearly purple.

Zuko extended it to her between his fingers, and leant close to whisper at a rasp. "I win."

Katara shivered, snatched it and crossed her arms, glaring and then looking away defiantly. "You suck." She murmured defiantly. When he didn't answer, she dropped her gaze back on him and just caught him smirking in self-satisfaction. Why did he look so goddamned hot when he smirked like that? She made a face.

Zuko leant closer and kissed her on the cheek, which caused her frown immediately to soften somewhat. "That's why you love me," he replied swiftly.

Katara rolled her eyes, and moved past him toward the door out into the hallway. "Come on; we'd better go see if we can help Suki and Sokka," then she glanced over her shoulder to him. "And if we stay here, alone, for too much longer, we'll end up in a naked pile on the floor," she pointed out, a smirk gracing her lips pensively.

Zuko smiled at her, made a remark that that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, got a smack on the arm, and then followed her out of the room.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I finally finished this fucking chapter! So cute! :3 It's especially long because, well … because it is! The chapters won't all be this long, so don't get used to it! Okay, for starters, I'm still laughing my ass off for that adorable Zuko-Katara scene at the end of this chapter; honestly, I didn't write it - it wrote itself. Plus, I guarantee you we'll see Toph soon …**

**I've been toying with this totally-Toph line for a few months, but I couldn't find a point at which she could say it. Hopefully next chapter.**

**Also, as choppy as this chapter is, I've done worse, so … so there. :P**

**Lyrics are from Rob Thomas' _'Lonely No More' _which to me is totally Zuko's song.**


	9. Nobody Knows Who I Really Am

"Is that everything?" Katara asked, watching Zuko hop down from the small yacht he'd rented to get Sokka and Suki to safety. He'd been helping Sokka load the luggage onboard while Suki sat on deck with a packet of potato chips and a frown on her face. There'd been an option to rent a sailor to go with the boat, but apparently Zuko knew how to sail - just how well, Katara didn't know - and he'd saved as much money as he could.

Zuko nodded, dusting his palms off on one another. "That's everything," he agreed, looking up to the sky to see the pink and purple clouds drifting against its orange backdrop. It wasn't quite curfew, but by the time curfew came around, they'd be out to sea and the Dai Li wouldn't be able to stop them. Zuko glanced down the pier to where he saw Sokka and his father conversing in a manner totally befitting father and son; with jokes and laughs and claps on the shoulder. Zuko felt a twinge of jealousy. "Now all that's left is goodbyes, I guess," he looked to Katara, who was wearing that sad look on her pretty face again.

Katara tugged a corner of her mouth down in a half-frown. "Right," she glanced out to sea, and saw the sun edging toward the horizon.

Suki suddenly appeared behind Katara, so silently that Katara hadn't heard her approaching. Zuko pointed behind Katara to alert her that her sister was behind her. Katara turned to see Suki standing with a sad smile on her face, arms wrapped around her middle protectively. The cool evening breeze took her chin-length auburn locks aside and away from her neck, and the sunlight glinted in her blue-green eyes.

"Oh; Hey, Suki," Katara smiled at Suki hesitantly, "Is something wrong?" she asked, blinking curiously.

Suki shook her head and let go of herself to throw her arms around Katara. The younger girl froze for a moment, in confusion, before sighing and hugging back. "I just wanted to thank you - both of you - for everything you put together in a matter of hours just so we could be safe," she glanced from where she was hugging her sister to where Zuko stood nearby, with a soft smile in his direction.

Zuko put a hand on Suki's shoulder and patted it supportively as she hugged Katara. He reached with his other hand for the pocket of his uniform trousers and produced a scrolled up piece of paper from it. He dropped the hand on her shoulder from it, and extended the piece of scrolled paper to her. When the girl looked at him with a confused look, he explained, "Give this to the head maid, Roberta, once you get to the house. They'll take good care of you, there; and there's even a private masseur."

Suki pulled away from Katara, took the scroll and nodded. "Alright, then," she glanced down the pier and saw Sokka approaching with his final bag slung over his shoulder. Suki looked back to Katara and Zuko with a hesitant smile. "Looks like its time to go," she searched their gazes with sparkling blue-green eyes and then looked out to sea - to the sunset. Sokka approached and took her side.

"Are we going, or what?" Sokka asked, once he'd tossed his bag up onto the boat.

His father had followed him, and Kana and Pakku had followed Hakoda, and it looked like they were headed for a big goodbye scene. There was a brief session of people looking at one another before Hakoda looked to Zuko.

"Are you sure you know how to sail this thing?" he arched a brow.

Zuko smiled nervously and raised a hand to the back of his neck. "Of course," he answered swiftly, despite his inherently anxious body language. Then Hakoda was poking him in the chest and he wondered if he was going to get his ass kicked - maybe he was the Blue Spirit, but Hakoda was bigger than him, and of course, Zuko doubted Katara would ever forgive him if he fought back in a fight with her father.

Hakoda poked Zuko in the chest with a pointy finger. "You'd better," he told the boy in a threatening tone, before looking to Sokka and Suki. A smile played on his face and he put a hand on each teenager's shoulder. "Alright, you two; play nice. Try not to kill each other - you need to stick together," he reminded them, with a warning stare. His gaze focused on Sokka and he raised that hand again to point in his direction. "Look after your girlfriend, Sokka; you got it?"

Sokka nodded agreeably, looked to Suki and smiled hesitantly.

Hakoda then looked to Suki and smiled, opening his arms up for a hug. Suki smiled too and hugged him briefly. "I hope you consider yourself a part of our family, Suki; I know I do," he told her truthfully, and then chuckled heartily, "Keep Sokka out of trouble, will you?"

Suki laughed under her breath. "Will do," she replied.

There was more hugging and more palaver, and they turned toward the boat. Zuko climbed aboard first, then Sokka, and they pulled Katara and Suki up together. Their family stood a ways off on the pier; not waving, or even smiling. Just watching. They became figures in the distance, then silhouettes on the horizon, and then dots, and then they were gone, as they sailed away on the water. Katara and Suki disappeared inside, and Sokka stood on the deck, leaning on the rail with a hard expression on his face.

He ended up thinking about Toph.

In the same way that Suki and Katara were sisters, Sokka considered Toph his little sister. She was important to him; more often than not the one person who could understand him. He'd have given anything to share a few words with her before leaving home. It felt like before the Dai Li were finished, he'd lose everything he cared about. First Toph, then Aang, then his freedom, then Kelly, and now his home and his family too.

Of course he'd taken time to collect his bearings at the idea of leaving home; it was his home. He'd been born in that house, taken his first steps on that street, rode his first bicycle around that town. It was home. In his head, he'd relived his own life five times through in the past few weeks. Sometimes distracting himself with little tasks - like building a crib, for instance - would be good enough, but Sokka usually ended up sitting with a cold coffee in his hand, having spent a solid two hours in a sleep-like daze of nostalgia.

He'd relived the good days, and only the good days. After his mother's death, Sokka's life had had significantly fewer of these good days. From there everything had begun to unwind, disentangle and become blindingly apparent in the blinding light her death shone upon it. The tiny little insecurities he'd had at that age had flared up to get him in trouble at school, and his grades had slipped. It was the reason he doubted he'd make it into Yale on the application; the reason he hadn't even opened it from its envelope.

But sleeping, and daydreaming, he could relive his old life; before all that shit had come and rearranged his life more thoroughly than a typhoon. He could stay in his bubble, and regain his bearings, and then come out and just put on a happy front, to hide just how _terrified _he was that things would get worse. He was afraid of losing the baby, though not nearly as afraid as he was of losing Suki. He slept away his fear.

Sokka glanced to the sun as it sank beneath the water, and he smiled sadly, thinking of the irony of it all. How strange it was that Katara's fears - in the form of horrible nightmares - attacked her in her sleep, and he slept so heavily nowadays to _escape _his own fears. Ironic.

Tragic and depressing, but ironic.

* * *

><p>Toph had made her decision.<p>

She wanted to be more powerful; to train her bending skills until she could take down ten, twenty … hell, fifty Dai Li agents at the same time. If she was going to help anyone, she needed to be able to make large dents in their numbers. Toph didn't know how many others were fighting - or even prepared to fight - the Dai Li, but she doubted there were many. Without a full-scale rebellion, it would be pointless. Without organization, it would be weak.

Rebellion and organization weren't two things that were easy to put together, she noted, as she slipped through the cooling night air of a back alley, readying her amateurish, self-taught skills to fight trained warriors of battle. She wouldn't be able to win at this point, but she'd be able to hold her own. Toph knew this for sure - she'd be able to hold them back long enough to get a good 'look' at the stances and forms they used, memorize them, and flee in time to live and practice.

She'd reveal herself, study them, and then disappear. And again. And again. That was her plan, at least. Hopefully it would work; she couldn't be worse at planning than, say, Zuko, right? And Sokka had done stupider things. And Aang had kept bigger secrets. _Damn, _she thought to herself, _I know some fucked up people._

This was around the same time she stepped out of what was probably a shadow, judging by the subtle temperature change, and darted to the middle of an open park of flat grass; a spot popular with dog-walkers. And the perfect battleground. A bump on the earth bounced off her sharpened senses. Then another. Footsteps. An enemy nearby. Toph drew a breath and lowered herself to a horse-stance. She'd push herself to her very limit - because she had to strengthen up - but more importantly, she would watch them in the most intimate sense of the meaning.

She'd sense their every movement - perfect the stances. Until she was unstoppable.

"Toph Bei Fong!" one of them called out, and Toph immediately felt a flare of hatred for her parents. They _would _go to the Dai Li, the cowards. They'd go to the Dai Li for help, and in exchange, offer money, support, anything; and at the same time they'd slide up beside them, hoping to be favored by them. Because they weren't the type to rebel - instead they were the type to betray others for their own safety.

A different agent was the next to speak; Toph guessed just by the sound of his voice, he was at a two o' clock position in relation to where she was facing, and the first had been at an eleven o' clock. "Please come with us - we must escort you home, to your parents. You've been missing for quite some time," the second announced in a loud but eerily calm tone, and Toph immediately wanted to hear him cry. _Wow, Toph, _she thought to herself, _that's a little dark, even for you._

The blind girl raised a bare foot and jammed it into the muddy grass under her, cropping up a stout stage about two feet off the ground. She hopped up to it, her consciousness registering the feedback the vibrations her actions send shuddering around her. One, two … Toph counted the agents surrounding her. Twelve. Thirteen. Fifteen. She dropped back into her basic horse stance, her fists held in a boxing defense; it was the closest thing to martial arts she knew.

Toph raised a fist threateningly, vaguely in the direction of the voices. "Fight me!" she yelled out suddenly, almost desperately.

A third voice, this one calmer still, answered from behind, and Toph was caught between turning to face it and staying the way she was; the blind earthbender simply glanced sightlessly over her shoulder, turning one ear to the voice. "We will do no such thing, Miss Bei Fong. You may come with us of your own free will, or we will have to escort you by force, but we will not fight a helpless child."

Toph ground her teeth at first, then clenched her jaw and split her mouth open into a huge, wide grin, stretching across muddy cheeks. "Helpless, you say," she murmured willfully, maniacally, under her breath, and she adjusted her stance to fire the first shot toward that third speaker. She then laughed out wildly, tilting her head back slightly. Her graceless guffaws echoed against the tall apartment buildings surrounding the park. "Helpless, he says!" she cawed out between laughs.

And then she raised her knee a fraction of an inch from the ground under her, slammed it down and backward, and a condensed portion of the earth under her jumped up from its habitat as she spun on the other heel and threw a punch at the slab as it hung in mid air. Her knuckles came hard into the flattest part of it and it was sent flying toward the one who had called her helpless.

"I'll show you helpless!" she announced at a shout, her voice barely below a scream as the slab crushed her target's ribcage and sent him flying backward.

The Dai Li immediately took offensive stances, and Toph entered a defensive one; she didn't need to beat them all - just hold them back and keep them fighting long enough to collect some good recollections of their movements for training purposes. She needed to be stronger. Strong enough to fight them, strong enough to protect people, and strong enough to …

Strong enough to defeat Aang.

Yes. She needed that; she hated him. She hated him with every fiber of her being and she'd never stop until she'd had her revenge. He'd taken everything from her; everything was his fault. It was his fault she was blind - that everything she'd ever known had been snatched out from under her and tossed to the four winds. It was Aang's fault that she'd never see again; see the beautiful sunset, or the moon in the sky, or her children's faces, god willing she lived long enough to have any.

Toph locked her elbow in place to block a boulder thrown across the air at her - she'd sensed it coming by the movements of its thrower. The boulder smashed apart against the heel of her hand, and she swerved out of the way just in time to feel the smooth back of one of their sculpted fists whiz against her muddy upper arm. It stung a little, but that passed. She found herself thinking about a line from a football movie.

'_Pain heals. Chicks dig scars. Glory lasts forever.'_

Toph waved her left arm across what would once have been her line of sight and formed a fist on the end of it, just as a clay fist came barreling into her forearm, knocking her backward and down from her pedestal. She took a moment to groan out, and then threw her head back and her legs over as her hands grabbed the earth under her and she righted herself with a backflip.

She'd have to remember one day to thank Suki for making her learn to cartwheel and flip this way and that, just on the principle that 'girls are supposed to know this shit'.

Toph's awareness switched to a particular agent moving toward her and lowering himself to a stance with one leg extended to the side. She took note of his movements - this one may have proved handy later. This agent jabbed his heel sideways and down into the dirt, and the earth opened to swallow his foot and ankle. At first, Toph thought this had been an accident, and then the agent pulled his leg up and out of the ground with a huge ball of earth surrounding it from mid-calf down.

Toph was distracted for a moment when an agent had somehow managed to sneak up behind her slipped under her arm and jammed an elbow into her ribs. Toph staggered sideways, one hand dipping to the mud and slinging up a handful of it toward the eyes of the one near her. The sneak took the mud to the face, but wiped once and ducked low to hit the earth with the heels of his hands. The ground shook under Toph and then exploded under her, sending her flying upward.

Toph was completely blind in the air; her feet sensed nothing. She landed hard on her tailbone, before her back hit the grass, and then her head. She was momentarily jarred, lifting her knees and flattening her feet to the ground to get her wits about her. Toph pinpointed that one she'd been studying beforehand.

With some great bout of strength, the agent threw a spinning kick, releasing the jagged, rough ball around his ankle at just the right moment and sending it flying at Toph's head where she lay on the ground. Toph instantly tugged her legs up over her and then threw them at the ground, the force of this movement throwing her back to her feet. She heard the ends of her hair whisper against the jagged, rocky ball that narrowly missed her head, around the same time she felt a clay fist punch her in the back.

She grunted, clenched her teeth and threw her arm for the rock ball that had just missed her. She grabbed it just in time and dug her fingers into its surface. She leant back and swung it around her body, before hurling it at its creator, heavy as it was. Its creator blocked it by simply putting up an earthen wall to shield him.

The sneak, who had elbowed her in the ribs and thrown her in the air, grabbed for Toph, who was momentarily winded, but she ducked out of the way and grabbed him at the wrist. "Sorry about this," she snarled through gritted teeth and gripped his wrist tight in one hand, bringing the other one high up over her head and then forcing it downward at his forearm. With a sickening crack, an unnatural squelch and a scream of agony, the agent's forearm snapped in two in her hands. When Toph released him, he fell to the floor, clutching his arm and screaming.

At that point, a clay hand grasped Toph's sleeve just above her elbow, pinning her arm to her ribs by clenching the fabrics together. She briefly considered pulling the shirt off, but it was grasping her bra strap as well, so she figured she'd best not add to her list of crimes with indecent exposure, little as she cared about that shit. She turned and stamped a foot on the ground to get a good look around. The agent who'd kicked the ball of earth at her and blocked her counterattack, and two others, had her surrounded at three points.

This shouldn't have been too hard, she figured, but this was her first real fight against benders, and she wasn't going to make the mistake of underestimating them.

Two of the agents stood at five o' clock and eight 'o clock positions, and the final was straight ahead. There was a momentary pause; just barely long enough for Toph to memorize their stances and take a wild guess at what they were planning. At the way one of them twitched toward their move, some new instinct in Toph told her to sink her feet into the ground to the ankles.

The twitchy one dropped to one knee and drove the knife-edges of his fists into the ground, bringing up a thick wall about three feet high. Then he ran a finger through part of it, slicing a third of it from the top, before pulling his arm back and punching a fist into the severed top of the short wall. The slab of rock wall went flying toward Toph, and she threw up one arm to push it out of the way just in time. Twitchy sliced the rest of the wall down the middle and stomped the ground, sending one half of it up into the air. He grabbed it in his hands and flung it at the blind girl.

The blind bandit - Toph momentarily thought of the irony of that - swerved to one side to get out of the way, and when she regained an upright position, caught at the last moment the vibrations of the final slab coming free of the earth. The Twitchy one forced this at her with the heels of his hands, like performing CPR in mid air, and Toph's eyes widened; unsure of how to dodge this one.

She thought fast and let herself fall backwards, rooting her feet under the earth and hoping to god this didn't just work in the movies.

For a brief moment, as Toph felt the dusty followings of the slab rushing just over her face, one single epic thought entered her mind and she grinned. _'Matrix fucking bullet-dodge, biatch!' _she screamed in her head, before her back hit the ground and she took a moment before ripping her feet out of the ground, elbowing the earth under her and throwing herself back to her feet.

One arm crossed over her torso and grabbed the clay fist clamping her sleeve to her shirt, before clenching on it and grinding her teeth as she squeezed to crush it. It was highly condensed - hard to destroy - but it shattered under her grip eventually. Then she ducked low to avoid having her head taken off by a slab of rock, before grabbing the floor and pulling it up into another pedestal under her. She shut her blind eyes to concentrate before bringing all her weight down on her knees and forcing it hard back into the ground.

Shockwaves of jagged earth lapped over the park, turning over the grass and ripping plants from their roots, throwing agents this way and that, burying them, launching them backward and such. Toph took a moment to catch her breath, and in doing so, left an opening - a weak point - for an attack to her back. A clay hand came hard and fast into the back of her knee and forced her down. Toph's hands went out to keep her face from hitting the dirt.

On her knees, the pads of Toph's feet were completely unlinked to the earth, so she made note of focusing on the reverberations in the earth to see what was going on. There was one agent left; behind her. The others were gone, thrown astray. Somehow he'd avoided all her other attacks, however universal they may have been. Instead of finishing her off, he spoke.

"So you've learnt to bend," the agent called from above - Toph noted that he was standing on the ridge of the depression she'd made in the earth - with minimal amusement in his voice. "It would seem we have a traitor on our hands," he thought aloud, before he took a step for her and slid down the slope toward her, weaved sandals skidding over the dirt. Toph reached down for her leg to break up the restraint holding her knee to the ground. A hand grasped the back of her shirt. "I'll admit your skills are impressive, especially for someone who's only been training for three weeks. But even a great talent like yourself cannot even hope to destroy the Dai Li, no matter who it is that taught you."

And it was this sentence that broke out the grin on Toph's face. The restraint on her knee cracked, then fell in pieces over the muddy skin of her calf to the dirt under her. The agent didn't seem to notice. She took a handful of mud just as the agent pulled her by her dirt-covered shirt to her feet. One of Toph's feet touched the ground, and that was all she needed; one toe. The tip of her toe touched the earth, sending the subtlest of vibrations through the earth.

She felt the agent reaching into his robes for the metal restraints he was carrying inside. It was just enough distraction to throw one arm and fling the mud in her palm into his face. He squeezed his eyes shut in time to keep from getting blinded, but his hand released her shirt and her feet hit the ground. Toph took two striding steps away and then turned to face her enemy, sinking to one of the stances she'd sensed other agents using; one foot forward, the other knee bent, arms stretched forward and hands in fists.

Toph took a breath and grinned, satisfaction worn like a mask on her face. "Who ever said anything about destroying the Dai Li?" she sneered tauntingly, breathing hard, her chest heaving. She felt lightheaded for a moment, but she supposed that was to be expected. She hadn't had a workout like this in weeks; since long before the CIA incident. "If I … defeated you … who would I fight?"

The agent replied with a breathy snort of indignation, reaching up and wiping the mud from his face. "I advise you to stand down, child; before you get hurt," he threatened seriously, taking a basic martial arts stance. "If you don't intend to rebel against the Dai Li, then stand down - or I shall have to treat you as a rebel and end your life."

Toph's grin would've grown if it could - she didn't have dimples, but the way she was grinning gave her little dents in her cheeks. She laughed dryly behind the cage of white teeth, blind, pale green eyes unfocused but sparkling, shimmering with anticipation. Her elbows bent themselves to a ninety-degree angle. "You don't seem to get what I just said," Toph spoke in a breathy kind of chuckle, "I don't want to fight the Dai Li. I want to study you."

And that's when her enemy understood. "I see. This was all just a chance to study our bending; to memorize our moves for yourself."

Toph chuckled again. "Bingo," she tilted her head tauntingly. "I'm not a rebel. I'm just a blind earthbender, teaching myself to fight."

The blind earthbender was unnerved when her enemy released a single laugh. "If you don't want to fight the Dai Li … who are you teaching yourself to fight?"

Less than four minutes later, the Dai Li agent was on the floor, bleeding, but alive. Toph stood over him, a sour expression on her face and her blind eyes staring into the middle distance. Her knuckles were reddened, the skin split on them in some places, and she was bleeding from the mouth as a result of one of her hind teeth coming free of the gum and now being lost to the dirt at Toph's feet.

"I'm not training to help the Avatar," she began glumly, lifting a hand and putting the back of a cool index finger to the bruised puff growing on one of her cheekbones and then wiping blood from her mouth where it was slipping from the corner of her lips. She clenched her fists at her sides and tried to dust the bloody dirt from her clothes - it did nothing. "I'm training to _fight_ him."

"Then …" he croaked, blood dribbling from the arcing shape of his mouth. "Then you … you are just … like us."

Toph fled without so much as a word. And she wondered if perhaps he was right.

* * *

><p>"Aidan Riker, do you promise to uphold the Dai Li code of honor until your dying breath; to fight and defend the Dai Li ideology with your life?"<p>

"I promise."

"Aidan Riker, do you swear on your life to forsake all others to protect your leader, Long Feng of the Dai Li government?"

"I swear on my life."

"Do you swear to live for Strength, Might and Power, as befits a Dai Li agent?"

"I swear to live so."

"Then let Aidan Riker of the old and dying world be forever forgotten," the Dai Li minister gestured to the ceremonial woman knelt behind the kneeling teenager. They stood and draped over his shoulders a dark green robe - the robe of a Dai Li agent. The teenager knelt with his head hung in subordination. "And in his place, arise Agent Aidan Riker of Master Long Feng's Dai Li army. May you be blessed by Oma and Shu, and by Mother Chikyu; the Earth herself. May your bending forever be strengthened by the Sun. May your fury be swift and merciless, and may all who defy your authority as a Dai Li agent by struck down and perish.

"Lift your eyes, Agent Aidan Riker," the minister gestured, and the teenager tilted his head up, dull eyes with widened pupils fixed forward on the minister as he knelt. The minister turned and took the sword from its cushion, where a kneeling ceremonial servant girl was knelt, holding it up to him. It was a fencing sword, like that King Arthur had wielded in his time, but its meaning was far more sacred than Excalibur's had been. For this was Mother Chikyu's sword - thousands of years old and bound together, protected from decay, by the love of its wielder.

He took the sword in his hands and turned back to the kneeling teenager. "Strength," he recited, tapping the teenager's right shoulder, "Might," he tapped Aidan's left shoulder with the tip of the blade, then brought the blade down and touched its sharp tip to where the boy's heart lived. "Power," he nodded his head and turned again, placing the sword back on its cushion.

"Rise, Agent Commander Aidan Riker of the Dai Li Armies, and offer your flame to your leader, Long Feng," the minister bowed his head and stepped aside, the girl with the sword walked with him until they took stances on the far left of the ceremonial stage. Further to the head of the room, there was a throne, and on that throne a man in robes of finery and ornate rings and beads was sat in formal silence.

Aidan Riker stood, his Dai Li robe hanging on his shoulders, and put his hands together in front of him. A spark leapt to life in his palms and he took a step toward the throne in the front of the room, his walk awkward, stiff and menacing after the way his knees had been so brutally broken with hammer and nail. He would never walk right again, but he didn't care; the Aidan who had been in that moment was gone. Dead forever; the Dai Li had killed him.

"Long Feng, my leader," Aidan's voice recited robotically, all the cocky pride the teenager had once held banished to an abyss. The spark in his palm blossomed to a flame, six inches and strong, flickering wildly with the anger that had once lived in him - their mind tricks could make him their slave, but never kill the anger in his heart - and a deep orange color, with streaks of smoky black appearing at certain points. "I present to you my flame. I am your humble servant, to do with what you will. I will fight for you, and protect your world to my dying breath," he spoke in an almost motorized tone. The anger … the _passion _that had one been in his voice was gone, replaced by a robotic, rehearsed one, with no emotion at all behind it.

Aidan's clouded eyes of stormy gray-green that had once glinted with life, no matter how morbid, fell emotionlessly on Long Feng.

A tiny smirk, and then a grin, pulled across the dictator's cheeks. "I bear witness to this ceremony," he announced to the room - a squadron of troops were stood to witness the ceremony also - and held a hand out in gesture to Agent Commander Aidan Riker, "And I, Long Feng, declare Agent Commander Aidan Riker your brother in arms!"

"**STRENGTH! MIGHT! POWER!"**

* * *

><p>Azula breathed hard as she lay on her back, grass tickling her skin at the backs of her arms, her bare shoulders, her bare shins and her feet. It was just a moment there, catching her breath, but she told herself it was too long. Azula threw herself to her feet with a swift kick at the air. She dropped back into a stance from the old scrolls in the basement library - from the days of her great grandfather, Sozin.<p>

Across the grass, she could see the house in the distance, the size of a dollhouse from where she was stood, about two football-field lengths away from it. She could see her uncle turning away to face the nursemaid who was approaching with glasses of lemonade. She'd been on her feet for a single day, but at the mention of training herself to bend, nobody had been able to make her stop. There was something about it; she couldn't have explained if she wanted to.

It was something she just _had _to do; like a duty.

"I'm not done yet!" Azula panted, her voice a husky shout across the grassy acres surrounding three sides of the Scorsese mansion as she yelled to her uncle, who stopped and looked over his shoulder to her, the loose robe over his everyday-wear fluttering on the cool evening breeze. She'd get the drill right; she'd been practicing all day. She had to get it right already. She needed to show him she could control it!

Iroh just turned to face her and let his arms hang loosely at his sides, watching.

Azula swallowed against the dry feeling in her throat and leant back for a moment to get a spring into her step. Her hind leg kicked around her and a bow of fire spun out from it. The force of the kick having lifted her up from the floor just high enough, Azula's front leg swung around her back, and Azula spun with it too in the air, throwing an arm around her body and adding to the waves of fire her legs kicked out.

But when she used her arms to bend, the fire came out blue, and threw her backwards.

Azula hit the ground again and groaned in annoyance. "Dammit!" she hissed between clenched teeth.

When she opened her eyes, Uncle was standing over her and she snorted and blew a bang out of her face. Azula opened her mouth to tell him to wipe that pitying look from his face - she would get it on the next try; she'd get the flames to calm down - but he cut her off with a genial smile. "Azula, there is a reason your bending is hard to control right now. After such an illness, after metamorphosis, firebenders should not attempt bending for weeks, as the process lasts longer than the fever."

Azula grabbed the grass in her hands and got to her feet, tossing her hair back and tightening the hold her scrunchy held on her hair. "Quiet, old man. You're here to teach me to bend, not tell me not to."

Iroh just laughed mirthfully. "Oh, come, Azula; that's no way to talk to your dear old uncle!" he raised a hand and patted her on the back. "I can understand why you're frustrated, but I assure you my goal is not to keep you from bending. I can tell you are wonderfully talented at it!"

Azula's hard expression softened and she tilted her head somewhat. "You can? Really? But I'm doing horrible."

Iroh nodded, smiling, leading her back to the house. "Your fever is still wreaking havoc with your emotions. If you cannot control your emotion - your inner fire - you can't even hope to control your external flame. Don't worry about it. It will pass in a few days, and then we will return to your training."

Azula sighed and hung her head. "Fine. But when Zuzu finally finds the time to start training, I want to be good enough to kick his ass."

Iroh laughed again. "I dare say you already could."

* * *

><p>"Hey," Zuko spoke up from behind Katara, where she was standing in the night sky on the back of the hired yacht, on the way back from Ember Island. Katara, who had been leaning on the rail and watching the consistent rush of the water behind the propellers looked over her shoulder, and Zuko caught her blue eyes amidst the way the wind pushed her hair into her face. A smile took his face as she turned to face him and the wind, and her hair flowed over her shoulders, out of her line of sight.<p>

She just smiled thoughtfully, and then took a pensive blink and shook her head, tucking her hands into her pockets and leaning against the rail with her elbows. "Hey," she answered, sounding distracted.

Zuko tucked his own hands into his pockets - the wind out here was rather persistent, and his hands were getting cold. It had been fine earlier, while the sun had been up, but now that night had fallen, it was rather cold. He tilted his head back and lifted his gaze to the sky. His smile reached his eyes as he spotted the full moon shining above. "It's a full moon," he noted, thinking back to that night Katara and he had discussed the moon.

"Yeah," Katara replied mildly, looking up to the sky. The white glow of the moon lit her face and gleamed in her blue eyes. For some reason, Katara thought to herself, the moonlight in her eyes didn't bother her. To just stare up at the moon, where it hung in a navy blue sky, surrounded by perfectly scattered stars felt like the most tranquil, peaceful thing in the world. "It's beautiful," she murmured under her breath.

Zuko recognized this as a form of déjà vu. That night under the half-moon, he had looked at her and seen the moon hitting the mask of the Painted Lady, and wanted to tell her she was beautiful. But the way she looked tonight, without the mask, was beyond that. It was breathtaking. He wondered if he even had the words to say it now without completely screwing it up, but he did it anyway. "You're beautiful," he spoke up in a husky rasp, his eyes falling from the sky to Katara.

Katara's gaze dropped from the sky and fell on him. The smile on her face was accompanied by a soft, rose pink blush on her cheeks. "You're not just saying that because we're alone together, miles from anyone who might have anything to say about us being together, are you?" she asked quickly and swiftly, despite the blush on her cheeks. Zuko wondered how she could hold herself so perfectly; when he blushed he got all awkward and nervous.

Zuko laughed on a breath, his hair floating on the wind. "No. I'm not. I wanted to say it a while ago and I didn't," he answered truthfully, his smile reminiscent and thoughtful. He took a step toward her, and then another, until he turned and leant against the railing beside her, on his elbows. "And for the record, I don't give a crap what anyone has to say about us," he noted the warm feeling in his cheeks and hoped to god he didn't get awkward.

Katara's smile widened and she caught her lower lip in her teeth, looking as thought she was struggling not to say something completely cheesy. She drew a breath, sighed away the bubbly feeling he guessed she must have been feeling. "Me either," she replied, glancing away, and Zuko took the moment to admire the soft skin of her neck as she arced it away from him. "Hey," she began carefully, and ran her tongue over her lower lip before turning back to face him. "Do you … ever feel like things are too good to be true?" she asked thoughtfully.

Zuko laughed out a breath. "All the time. Every time we're together."

Katara blinked at him and pulled a lopsided smile. "Yeah. Well … lately it's like everything wants to … you know, come crashing down, and I just wanted to thank you. For being the one thing I can count on," she pulled one hand from her pocket and removed a stray strand of hair from where it had caught on the zipper of her leather jacket, before putting her hand back into the pocket.

Zuko slid his arm across the railing, behind her and pulled her into his side. She smiled and put her head to his shoulder. "Ditto," he smiled at her, and she didn't need to ask to get the reference and giggle breathily into the moonlit night.

"Aren't you supposed to be driving the boat?"

"Autopilot thingy-majig."

"Aha," Katara stopped and frowned and lowered her gaze to look to one of her pockets. Curious what this look was about, Zuko looked too as she drew one hand out of the pocket of her leather jacket. The moonlight glinted on something silver and shiny, and Zuko immediately recognized his lost lighter. "Oh, right," Katara murmured thoughtfully and extended her hand to him.

Zuko laughed, confused. "Why do you have my lighter?" he took the lighter and turned it in his hand.

"To help you quit smoking."

"I'm serious, Katara."

Katara smirked at him and reached a hand, testing, into the other pocket of her jacket, then her eyes went wide. "What?" she made a face - an amused, yet confused face - and pulled a little baggie from her pocket. "I thought dad stole this weeks ago," she snorted a laugh and passed the item in her left hand to her right to show Zuko what it was. "Anyway, this is why I stole your lighter," she waved it as if she was going to throw it to the water.

Zuko reached out and snatched it from her before she could throw it. "Why do you have a bag of weed?" he arched his good brow.

Katara shrugged. "Why does anyone have a bag of weed?" she shot him a suspicious look. "I got it on the highway, when we went to Los Angeles to pick up Toph. Some kid gave it to me as reparations for being a peeping tom," then she smirked and added suggestively, "Because I'm _that _sexy."

Zuko laughed huskily and opened the bag of already-rolled reefers to examine the specimen. "Well, we can't dock with illegal drugs on board, you know."

The blue-eyed girl laughed out so hard she doubled over slightly. "That's why I _was _going to throw it."

"I have a better idea," he smirked, and he raised the lighter in his hand to illustrate his point. Katara's eyes widened at him and his smirk only grew.

She looked surprised, but amused, if a little appalled. "I didn't know you _did _shit like that, Zuko," she crossed her arms over her chest, putting on a faux posh tone and shaking her head in mock disapproval, "I think I'll have to reconsider dating the likes of you, you adolescent _degenerate_," she shot him a glance and caught him lighting up one of the reefers. "Hey, gimme one; Ladies first," she nudged him with her hip.

Zuko laughed, nodded and gestured inside with a jerk of the head. "Let's go inside," he nudged her back, and pushed away from the rail.

* * *

><p>"Wa-wait, hang on, wait," Zuko gasped between chuckles, reaching for the stereo up on the wall unit his back was leant against. "I like this song, let me turn it up," he grasped the volume knob and turned it clockwise, and the guitar riffs of the hard rock song beating out of it got loud enough for Katara to hear them from where she was sat against the sofa in the onboard sitting room.<p>

"_Send me off on the morning breeze so far away from here, feel me rise in the strength I've found inside the warm embracing air - I'm moving slow, like a glacier melting watch me dissipate, I searched for love in an empty world but all I found was hate …"_

Katara lolled her head on her shoulder, bringing the marijuana cigarette to her lips and taking a drag before grinning at Zuko. "Hey, that's cool - what is that?" she asked lazily, the last remnants of laughter still bumping the underside of her words and bringing them out as cheerful little yelps.

"Rise Against - 'Worth Dying For'," Zuko answered swiftly, taking a breath of his own reefer. He shot her a look, desperately trying to keep himself from grinning and laughing. "No Emo jokes, alright? I've heard 'em all from Sokka," he pointed lethargically in her direction with the hand holding his cigarette and then his eyes fell on the smoke rising from it, and he brought it back to his mouth.

Katara stuck her tongue out and grinned, her tongue poking out from behind her teeth. "Hey, at least it's not Fall Out Boy," she pointed out.

"Don't diss, Katara," Zuko dropped his leg from it's propped-up position and kicked her in the knee with a lazy foot, a chuckle escaping as he did so. Katara jutted her lower lip out childishly at him and he laughed again. "I don't make fun of you, like _ever,_" he bumped the back of his head against the wood of the unit behind him, but it didn't hurt so he ignored it.

Katara smirked at him and blinked for a moment, just examining the cigarette in her hand. She snorted a thoughtful laugh. "You're nuts if you think we're going to smoke all those before we dock, you know," she jerked a thumb in the direction of the coffee table before the couch, where the bag of weed was laid on its side. Then she frowned in confusion. "Hey, I thought the Dai Li had control of the radio," she thought aloud.

"Oh, yeah, me too. Guess not."

"Hm."

"Yeah," Zuko replied with a yawn and he blinked wearily, trying to remember the last time he'd slept. He grumbled incoherently and raised his free hand to rub at his forehead and push his hair from his face. He'd fall asleep pretty soon; and the nightmares would hit him. Zuko pulled a face and looked back to Katara, who was watching him with a thoughtful look on her face. The corners of Zuko's mouth twitched up again. "What are you looking at?" he queried, arching his good brow.

Katara scoffed a laugh. "Not much," she teased with a smirk. "Actually I wanted to ask you something."

"Fire away."

"Well … do you remember when we played truth-or-dare with Toph and the others, in detention?" she fixed her eyes on where her toes were fiddling with the fabric of Zuko's jeans, and thought back to that day, and that horrid _list _of questions and dares Toph had brought to school. She smiled sadly, thinking of her friend. God, she missed Toph. Zuko nodded his acknowledgement, and Katara continued. "I wanted to ask you if … if it bothered you."

"If what bothered me?" Zuko laughed huskily.

Katara smiled awkwardly. "Me being the biggest virgin on the face of the planet," she answered truthfully, a blush rising to her cheeks.

Zuko looked surprised for a moment and then smiled and shook his head. "It doesn't bother me," he told her, and nudged her with his bare foot. She smiled pensively at the carpet, and Zuko nudged her again with his foot, and again, until she looked back to him, curious as to why he wanted her attention. "Does it bother you that I'm the biggest _manwhore_ in the history of ever?" he asked curiously. If there was any trace of insecurity in him, he didn't show it.

Katara shrugged and shook her head. "I figure at least one of use should know what we're doing, right?" she asked nervously, lifting her hand to the back of her neck. Then she giggled, her eyes still trained on the floor, and the hand on the back of her neck lifted to pinch the bridge of her nose. "I can't believe you were in a threesome …" she giggled, her incredulity apparent in her voice.

Zuko raised his hands innocently. "Hey, it wasn't _my _idea. And I'll never, ever, _ever _do anything as monumentally stupid as that _ever _again," he shuddered visibly, and Katara broke out in wild laughter, falling sideways to the floor, only barely keeping her reefer from the carpet to make sure she didn't' burn anything. Zuko opened his mouth to tell her to stop laughing, but then he found himself laughing too.

When Katara finally stopped howling her laughter, she pushed herself up and dragged in another breath of her cigarette, before coughing it back out again. "Agh, fuck," she breathed a single laugh, smiling thoughtfully. "Things used to be so easy, you know," she stated plainly, shooting him a look as he regained his composure, "Do you remember that time when we could wake up half-naked in a bed together, hung over, and be able to trust that we hadn't …"

Zuko nodded and grinned reminiscently. "Good times," he murmured thoughtfully. Then he sighed and drew a breath of smoke from the reefer in his fingers. "That was before we went out and became superheroes. Maybe that was our big mistake," he thought aloud, propping his chin on his fist.

Katara scoffed a laugh and slid her toes under Zuko's leg to warm them up; the door onto the deck was open to let the smoke from their cigarettes float away on the wind. "I think the only mistake we ever made was in waiting too long," she blinked slowly and lazily at him, sparkling blue eyes glinting in what little moonlight made its way into the otherwise unlit sitting room.

Zuko smiled warmly at her, and nudged her affectionately with his foot. "You're probably right," he agreed, his own eyes falling half-shut in a stoned lethargy. He tilted his brow and made a weak expression that Katara read as _'this is stupid' _running through his mind, and his smile drooped somewhat. "Can I ask you something?" he opened his eyes wider and blinked at her a few times.

Katara nodded and made a 'go ahead' gesture.

Zuko sighed first, collecting his thoughts and then blurted. He'd been lucky not to have gotten awkward already, and it had only been a matter of time. "Where do you stand on abortion?"

Katara's eyes went rather wide at that and her smile drooped only a little, as if she thought he was joking. "What, are you pregnant?" she asked with a blink.

Zuko laughed humorlessly. "I'm serious. I want to know."

She ran her tongue over her bottom lip and her smile fell completely. "Wh-," she paused and shook her head in confusion, "Where's this coming from? Why is that … why is that an issue?" Katara's brow furrowed and her cheeks blossomed pink again, the wheels of her mind turning over what he was asking her, deciphering his words.

That soft look of nervousness returned to Zuko's face. "I just want to know. To … I don't know, be prepared. If anything were to … happen. In the future, I mean," he made little gestures with his hands to get his point across, his face contorting to a lost-puppy look, unsure himself of what he was trying to explain, or ask. He paused, thought about his words, and then sighed heavily. "I know, it's completely random, but could you please answer the question?" he shot her a helpless look.

Katara blinked at him, a thoughtful, endeared look on her face, her brows still furrowed in thoughtfulness. "Did Suki put you up to this?" she asked, before catching her lower lip in her teeth.

Zuko frowned. "Huh? No - why would Suki talk to me about-,"

Katara waved a hand and shook her head. "Right, right - sorry, I just thought that 'cause … I mean, I talked to Suki a few weeks ago about it and I thought you might just be … following up on that conversation," then she laughed at herself and shrugged, "I don't know why. Must be the pot," she waved her reefer for a moment.

"Huh. Well … what were you two talking about?"

Katara drew her shoulders up. "I went with her to the doctor, and I asked her if she wanted to talk about options, and she was dead-set against abortion. She thinks it's murder."

A futile look of worry washed over Zuko's face. "And … what do you think?"

"I …" Katara raised a hand and flattened it over her forehead in pensive consideration. "I don't know what I think," she shut her eyes and grunted indecisively before continuing, "I think prevention - contraception - is important. If you're not ready for kids," she realized her words weren't exactly making much sense and breathed out at her own awkwardness. Blue eyes opened and fell on golden ones filled with pensive concern. Zuko looked terrified; somewhat hurt, even. Katara's brows tilted. "I can't say I'm completely against abortion, because … if things had gone differently with Jonathan Prescott …"

Zuko's eyes widened and he seemed to understand. He nodded and brought the cigarette back to his lips, looking away. "Right," he murmured, and then he screwed up his face slightly, before looking back to her. "I'm going to ask you something completely hypothetical. And I need you to answer honestly. Okay?"

Katara nodded, her expression still turbulent and unsure.

Zuko's eyes stayed locked on hers for a long while, a deafening silence hanging between them before he finally got up the courage to ask what he wanted to ask. "If … _after _we were …" he made a motion with his hands, "sexually active, let's say … you got into trouble …" he swallowed hard against a dry feeling in his throat. "Would you tell me?"

Katara's worried look let up momentarily for a smile to break through. "No more secrets, right?" she replied earnestly.

Shimmering golden eyes fixed on blue ones blinked once, then twice, and Zuko's shoulders jerked. A confused look washed over Katara's look as Zuko hunched over, lifting his knees and putting his elbows on them, hanging his head. His shoulders jerked again and Katara heard the sharp inhale that followed a sob and she realized that he was crying. Her eyes fell on his hands, where they hung over the carpet, and they were clenched into fists to keep from shaking.

Katara snuffed her cigarette on the rubber underneath her boot and pushed away from the couch to crawl to Zuko's side. She took the cigarette from his hand and snuffed it out, tossing it out the door, onto the deck, where it would roll across the wood and off the boat, into the water. Katara felt a lump in her own throat at the graceless sounds Zuko made between sobs, his back jumping with each one; she'd never seen him cry before. At least not like this.

She was at odds for a moment as to what she should do - maybe just sitting beside him would be enough; maybe that was all he wanted, all he could handle - but then she slid her hand past his dark locks and pulled the side of his head to her chest. Zuko offered no protest, and leant toward her, one hand coming and wrapping around her and clenching on the back of her shirt, her jacket having been discarded a while ago. He pressed his face into her skin and jerked uncontrollably as he cried. At one point he tried to stop, and explain, but Katara just shook her head and stroked his hair lovingly.

He didn't need to explain himself to her. Not now, not ever.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: And there you have some sweet Zutara loving. Also, a BAMF-Toph scene because we've been lacking in the action department. I was going to reveal Mai's abortion as a whole big thing; you know, a Dai Li inquiry, and her reputation forever being tarnished by that, but then I realized that abortion is something you keep to yourself for the rest of your life; it's a big thing and I'd have felt really guilty for doing that. I get the Mai is somewhat ashamed of it, and I didn't want to kick the dog.**

**On another note, my writing is finally lightening up. You know what that means, right? If it lightens up, _and _I stay under my 10,000-word limit (because it was getting just plain SILLY before), I can get a shitload more into a chapter! :3**

**But alas, I've posted this before finishing the next one because I have neglected you all week. I've just figured out what Bleach is and I'm hooked on it. So I spend my days off work watching episode after episode, and then on my work days, I come home and all I have the energy to do is watch Bleach. EEP. I just watched episode 307, where Gin stabs Aizen in the chest. Nuff said, right? :D  
><strong>

**Only two short 'show-you-what's-going-on' scenes in this chapter, because I did TWO long scenes (three if you count that I split the Zutara one), whereas before, even in the BIGGEST chapters, I only did, like, one. It's hard to keep things on track because everyone's separated now. Before (when was this 'before'? before what? What the hell am I talking about?), everyone was together and a single big scene would cover a lot of ground.**

**I am so retarded. I just realized I'm 9 chapters in the final season of LILA and I haven't even gotten close to wrapping things up - tying off loose ends, or explaining. I might have to do a spin-off mini-series if things stay this way -.- either way, I've realized that I've spent a whole year of my life writing LILA, and I have no idea how to end it; I think subconsciously I don't want it to end!**

**So I'm getting back on my game. Promise. I'm going to make this season special for you guys, for sticking with me.**

**Review my lovely-jubblies :3 xxx Rhia**

**You know I love you. So sorry for the wait! Lyrics are from Rie Fu's beautiful 'Life Is Like A Boat'.**


	10. Fold Just Before You're Found Out

It was a cloudless day. The sun was bright in its site at one corner of the sky, and it shone against the expensive buildings built along Milton Avenue, casting long morning shadows across the lawns to the rear of the Scorsese mansion. These shadows were not uninterrupted, however; bright blazes of orange flames cast even longer shadows against the scattered debris of broken yard furniture and combat props.

"Good! Now break my root!" Iroh yelled to his niece as they engaged in combat.

Azula took this as a cue – not to oblige him while he was expecting it – to wait until he thought she was giving up, and then take him down. Iroh had moved her to the more advanced moves now. She'd be able to take her brother down any time she wanted to; after all, he wasn't the only one who could fight. She could be stealthy too. She could be a great asset to his rebellion, if he only came and asked her. She couldn't possibly go to him and ask to be part of it, though – that would be stupid. Zuko had to acknowledge that she was a valuable fighter to have on his side. That was what she wanted.

She couldn't really say when she'd gained that desire; her brother's acknowledgement. She had always looked up to him, after all he'd done to keep her safe when they were little, but she'd never looked at him as someone whose approval she desired. Zuko's alliance was nothing; he was really no more than a high school student. So he was Ozai's chosen heir to their family business – that meant nothing in Dai Li America. Then he was the Blue Spirit, but that meant little with Earthbenders around. His swords couldn't compare, as opposed to her bending. Azula was quickly mastering her bending, and she would soon be able to hold her own against Long Feng himself, she was sure of this.

Still, she wanted Zuzu to want her help. She didn't know why, but she was content with it.

Iroh, having expected Azula to attack, had taken up a strong defensive posture, and an even stronger stance – one Azula could never hope to break with simple melee attacks. Azula, who stood a good twenty yards away from her uncle, ducked to the side to avoid a fire whip, and then took cover behind a fallen lawn table. If he thought she was tired, or hurt, he might drop his guard just enough for her to sweep in, knock him in the back of his knees, and send him to the floor.

Azula made a show of breathing hard, and faked a few gasps for breath. She didn't even have to look to sense her uncle letting up in his stance. He took a few steps toward where she hid – she heard his steps on the grass. Before he could ask if she wanted to stop, one hand grabbed the grass in a snake-like lunge, and she tugged herself as upright as she could get while on the move. Her gaze moved in a round, swift sweep, until it settled and fixed on Iroh. His guard was already going back up; she needed to take him down _now._

He was fast – faster than her, indisputably – but she had a slight upper hand. The element of surprise was on her side, and while she didn't have time to use any bending, neither did he. Azula crashed, rather gracelessly, into Iroh, and the two went toppling backwards on the grass. Azula couldn't decipher whether she had won or lost. On the one hand, she had taken him down, but on the other, she was down too.

Iroh laughed, once the surprise had worn off, and took a few hard breaths. Azula rolled away from her uncle and clambered, hands clawing at the grass, up to her feet, a mixture of pride and humiliation running through her. It was a peculiar mix of emotions to be experiencing. "Inventive, Azula," he breathed, propping himself up on his elbows. "I'll give you that."

Azula made a face. "Sorry," she reached up and pushed sweaty hair from her face – it had come undone in the midst of the battle. She scowled then. Azula had yet to defeat her uncle with her bending. So far, she had gotten him down on account of a flying kick to the stomach, something shiny flying across the sky, a sneak attack from behind, and now, this. Her bending, she feared, was not controlled – at least not enough to beat him. Damn it all, she cursed in her mind.

Iroh got up. "I know what you're thinking – that you haven't excelled because you can't beat me. But I am a master; I have had years to perfect my tactics. You have had only weeks, if that. All things considered, you are ready," he reassured her, a tired smile overcoming him.

"No, I'm not, uncle," Azula snapped, brow coming down as she tied her hair back up, "The Dai Li are efficient and disciplined! They are like a well-oiled machine, and I am most certainly _not. _I'm sloppy. I need more training," she insisted, shaking her head quickly, sending her ponytail whipping across the air behind her.

Iroh just smiled. It was almost insufferable. How could he be so calm? He breathed a sigh. "Well, no more today. I think that was a good run for now."

Azula scowled, defeated. She was tired, admittedly, but she needed to train! How could she take a break now? She resolved to let him have his way, however. Arguing with the old man would do nothing in her favor. "Agreed. But-,"

"Calm yourself, Azula," Iroh smiled, and pulled a robe over his training tunics. "Defeating the Dai Li will not be only a question of raw power and training; it will be politics, and gaining numbers, as Zuko is doing. Perhaps you and he should swap roles for a while," he suggested casually, and then moved to the house.

Azula opened her mouth to shoot this idea down in its tracks, but then she found herself actually considering it. It wasn't such a bad idea, come to think of it. Zuko needed to learn his bending, and she needed to know more than just fighting. No, she mused seriously; it wasn't a bad idea at all.

* * *

><p>Toph stretched her arms up over her head, a tired grin spread across her face. She was tired, admittedly – fighting really took it out of you – but it was a good tired. A triumphant tired. <em>'Ah,<em>' she thought to herself cheerfully, _'It's good to kick ass.' _The blind bandit strolled around the back corridors around the Earth Rumble underground stadium, proudly displaying the champion belt on her hips to those who could see. She didn't need to lay eyes on it to know it looked pretty damned cool; she could feel the golden embellishments and designs on its front.

**Earth Rumble Champion.**

It had a nice ring to it. She almost wished that the crowd had been thumping the beat to Queen's 'We Will Rock You' while she delivered the final blow to her last opponent this afternoon. Still, she supposed, pulling her hair free of the messy bun she'd tied it into at the back of her head; the roar of the crowd had taken her over. Suddenly, she hadn't felt like a blinded little girl. Instead, she'd felt like a champion – a warlord, a conqueror. A _warrior._

It was crazy, she knew it. Probably a sign of some underlying psychosis, or something like that. But it was still amazing.

"Nice job," Smellerbee's voice rang out from behind her. Toph had known she was there. "Want to get a celebratory drink?"

Toph shot blind eyes over her shoulder, and smirked. "No thanks," she replied, and it felt good to say it. "How about coffee?" Toph raised one hand to the other, and tapped a fingertip on the broken watch on her wrist. It was noon-ish – either that or midnight, but she guessed for midday. She could do with a coffee, or even a whole, big breakfast. Toph absently noted every step on the smooth, carved rock floor under her bare feet.

Smellerbee approached from behind, and the two found their way through the caves, out into the sunlight. Toph had been right; the warmth on her skin proved so. She had to become aware of these things, she pointed out mentally, if not only to know the things she'd known when she could see. Knowing the difference between day and night was a lot harder without seeing, but she'd figured out a formula for it. The two crossed a field of sparse vegetation, toward the sound of traffic. Toph sensed the earth barriers going up to hide the tournament center.

Toph thought back to the moment she'd woken up that morning – if four AM was considered morning time. She'd woken up without opening her eyes, and for thirty blissful moments between sleep and full alertness, she had completely forgotten that she was blind, that the world had been taken over. She'd felt as though she could run down Aang's stairs, see his foster parents in the kitchen, cooking, say 'hey, morning, mom and mom' then run into the living room and tell Aang to take off his clothes and follow her to the downstairs bathroom. And then she had woken up, seen nothing, and then shut her eyes again, hoping to fall back to ignorance again.

Smellerbee was carrying a duffle bag, and it looked like it had only clothes, shoes and other knickknacks inside, despite the pump-action shotgun and ammo it held inside. It was almost comical the way kids their age had gotten their hands on serious weaponry in the past few weeks, but rebellion brought connections. It was one side versus the other, and the rebels had the home team advantage.

The grown-ups were still too afraid to fight back, but the youth had no such qualms. They had taken up arms, and would fight to the death if they had to. Marina and Scorsese had done their bit to provide firearms to rebel members, and taught them to use them, too. In all actuality, Smellerbee had already known how to use a rifle, shotgun, what-have-you, but that was another tale for another time.

"You going to fight the Dai Li?" Smellerbee suddenly spoke up, as the two walked.

Toph arched a brow and tucked her hands into her muddy jeans' pockets. "Yeah; only to get stronger, though," she stepped over a piece of brush along the path back to civilization.

Smellerbee only scoffed a laugh, and wondered if Toph knew how stubborn she was being. She just plain couldn't see it – and this wasn't a blind joke. Toph couldn't see that the Dai Li were the real enemies here, and she needed to put aside her own personal irritations and vendettas to fight them. They needed to be fighting alongside Aang, because bending skills were the only thing that would take down the Dai Li. Smellerbee's eyes turned toward Toph, who was expertly maneuvering around brush and over gorse as she walked, and the freedom fighter shook her head thoughtfully.

With some distaste, she supposed she too had felt heartbreak. _'Just give her time. She'll get over it._

'_Eventually.'_

* * *

><p>Things had neither been better nor worse since moving Suki and Sokka to a safe location. The Dai Li seemed not to be investigating any rebel groups, as of yet, and this was good, but they also hadn't moved back the curfew, or made any actions that could work in the favor of Aang, Zuko and Katara's rag-tag rebel army. They were however, investigating the mysterious disappearance of Suki Kyoshi and Sokka Marina.<p>

Hakoda, ever the lawyer, had played the part of an astounded father with amazing precision; _'Eloped! I can't believe it! I always thought I got on well with Sokka – obviously not …' _Though, as well as he played the part, Katara had been uneasy at giving the Dai Li any kind of hint as to what had happened. The Dai Li had apparently cottoned on to the fact that Suki was pregnant, and even expressed so. She told herself it was a good thing they had been hidden.

The Dai Li told them they would be investigating, and that they were still suspects of a new crime known as 'aiding and abetting escape from Dai Li justice', which was apparently a capitol offence. My my, they were indeed getting on with revamping the judicial system, weren't they now? Hakoda purchased all seventeen copies of the new Dai Li litigation guideline books, and receded to his study to memorize each and every bit. Winning back America would be a game of laws and politics, alongside the war and battles.

The other thing they were investigating was for some reason Katara.

She herself was under the impression that they suspected her as the Painted Lady; that they had reason to think she was involved in rebel activity (which of course, she was). Katara stayed alert and vigilant, always careful that she wasn't being followed, tailed, bugged or watched, when conversing with other rebels under the cover of night and secrecy.

It was a Monday, not the one following the relocation of Suki and Sokka, but the one after that, when Katara was next called to the office of the new head of sanctions, rules and discipline. The Dai Li guards sat her down in the chair opposite the stern, middle-aged woman of breathtaking beauty, and stepped out of the room as per the older woman's directions – the ones spoken in the form of suggestion, but followed up with a reinforcing glare that mutated them to orders.

Katara already had a headache, probably from being up late on the phone to Zuko, taking about how her waterbending training was going, and how his sleeping situation was. As of yet, Zuko _still _hadn't gone to sleep, and Katara was beginning to worry about him.

Corporal Ling Su's pretty pink lips were pulled into a tiny, almost invisible smirk, and her eyes were cold and calculated. She was like a machine; in that she seemed to be in control of every move she made, every word from her mouth, every single hair on her head, even. They sat opposite one another for a short while, in complete silence, just staring at each other in the office.

"Tea, Katara?" the corporal suddenly suggested, the corners of her mouth tugging up slightly, and then falling back to their robotic perfection.

Katara's eyes stayed fixed on the corporal's. "No thank you," she replied carefully, as she had the last time she'd been sat with this woman. The Marina girl knew better than to trust there was no poison in the tea, and she knew better than to take tea with enemies. Zuko's uncle would have called it 'a waste of good tea to sour it with bitterness'. She had to admit, that old man had a lot of wisdom in his head. As for her own head, a dull ache was pulsing painfully inside it.

The corporal ignored Katara and poured tea for them both, from the tea tray on the desk. "Tell me, Katara, have you heard from your friend, Toph, recently?"

Katara tensed, and hoped the corporal didn't catch it. Was this what they were investigating her for? Were they trying to find Toph through her? Katara raised a hand and brushed a stray hair from her face, and put on a sad-looking frown. "No; people are saying she's dead," she averted her eyes in the façade of grief, "they might be right," she explained, though every part of her mind screamed that Toph was alive, well, and up to no good as always.

The corporal's smirk grew again, for a moment, but Katara didn't catch it. "A shame. You must be very upset. Please, have some calming tea."

'_Drink the Kool-Aid. Go on, have some,' _hissed a devil on one of Katara's shoulders, and she pushed it away to be sure she didn't get distracted.

"No thank you," Katara repeated, and this time she caught the slight fluctuation in the older woman's demeanor; just the tiny ghost of a frown crossed her face. "I don't drink tea," she blinked slowly and calmly, and reminded herself not to do anything stupid now. If she screwed up, the whole gang down in the old gymnasium could get found out, or she could be exposed as the Painted Lady, or Sokka and Suki could be …

The Corporal drew a breath and tilted her head, leaning back in her chair, while simultaneously lifting her cup and taking a sip of tea. "Yes, I believe you said so in our previous meeting, didn't you? I was under the impression you were just being cautious – it's understandable. All this change must be very hard for you."

Katara found her jaw clenching for some reason. Hard for _her? _What about people like Toph, who was blind? What about kids like Haru, who were being punished for not being able to control their own powers? Sure, things were different, but she had it a hell of a lot easier than some people! She was doing relatively well, all things considered. "I'm not sure I understand what you're getting at, Corporal," Katara's eyes poured into those of the woman sat opposite her.

The corporal's movements didn't differ from the occasional sip and blinking her eyes, behind thin-rimmed glasses. "Well, your brother has left you and your father, and your friends, Miss Bei Fong, Miss Kyoshi and Master Tyson are missing. You must be lonely."

Something in Katara snapped. They knew about Aang? What else did they know? She kept this little panic in check, and it didn't show on her features beyond a slight widening of the eye – she hoped Su didn't notice, but didn't expect it. How did they know who she hung around with? How did this woman know anything _about _Katara? "Lonely?" Katara swallowed thoughtfully, but she came to a conclusion, eventually.

They had a web. The Dai Li were spiders, with a large, ornate web of lies, so why wouldn't they have a web of communications too? It was safe to assume then, that whatever one agent found out, the whole army became aware of. That made things a fair bit harder for them.

"Yes, lonely," Su reiterated, and flicked her eyes to Katara. "Aren't you?"

Katara didn't quite know how to answer that. What kind of answer did the corporal want, and what kind of notes would the older woman take of any answer she made? It was like walking on eggshells; she just didn't know where the berserk buttons were. There were probably a million wrong answers to the corporal's questions, and only a handful of right ones. It looked like there wasn't a chance in hell Katara would get out of this without getting in trouble. She decided to go with her gut, no matter how unsettled it was. "I miss my brother, and my friends … but they left of their own accord, and whatever happens to them is their own fault," Katara raised a hand and touched a fingertip to an aching temple.

Su looked mildly surprised for a moment, and relief washed over Katara; she hoped that was all she needed to say to just—

"That's not what I asked you, Katara," a tiny smirk drew itself onto the otherwise statuesque expanse of the corporal's face. "Is it?"

Things were beginning to get dicey. Katara didn't know exactly how long she could play this game against accomplished military strategists like this woman. Sure, she had a poker face, or had at one point, but she had no idea what kind of punishment these people were capable of. It reminded her of a scene from a Brad Pitt Movie; Inglorious Bastards - though spelled differently. She thought of the moment where Shosanna had to sit and speak civilly with the Nazi known as the 'Jew Hunter', the same man who'd ruthlessly killed her family in scene one.

Katara's anxiety became apparent on her face, and she swallowed hard, eyes darting around nervously. Her façade of calm bravery had cracked.

This seemed to be exactly what Corporal Su had wanted, and she smiled. "You are lonely," the corporal raised a hand and made a kind of 'it's written on your face' kind of gesture. "When one is alone, they feel vulnerable; weak, even. I can see you're not used to feeling so."

Katara tried to school her features, but only succeeded in looking frustrated. She kept her mouth shut, afraid to say anything. This woman was obviously trying to figure Katara out, and she'd be damned if she let that happen. She'd rather eat nails, or some other, equally unappealing pointless kind of metaphoric action.

Su blinked and smiled, and it was all very Jekyll-and-Hyde, and then took a sip of tea. "But you know, with my help – with _your _help – the Dai Li can find your brother, and Miss Kyoshi, and Miss Bei Fong," she pointed out, and Katara immediately was flooded with suspicion. The other woman had conveniently left out Aang; mayhap because she didn't know any way to locate him, even with Katara's help.

Katara grew a mild idea as to what it was this woman wanted from her. Information, she suspected, at the very least. They had found out she was linked to Toph, and to Aang, and they wanted to know whatever they could get from her. They also knew she knew something about Sokka and Suki's disappearance, but that was to be expected; she was Sokka's sister. She had to know more than she had told the Dai Li missing persons' unit. But she was sure there was something else. It had to be about Aang.

Despite the mulching of thoughts in her head, Katara managed to get her emotions in check, and even reeled back some composure. "I don't know anything about their disappearances," she answered coolly, and it seemed as though her moment of worry had passed. She was thankful for this.

Katara caught a mild sneer of annoyance on Corporal Su's flawless features. "That is a shame," the woman spoke distastefully, and sat back in her chair, watching Katara through narrowed eyes. She seemed to calculate for a moment, before she spoke again. "What do you know about bending, Katara?" she arched a brow.

The Marina girl had taken to preparing herself for this; Su had wanted the topic of bending to be a wild card to throw in to get a reaction, but Katara was one step ahead of her. Her answer was already rehearsed, and she'd gone over it in her head a hundred thousand times to be sure she didn't give anything away. She had people to protect; her father, Sokka, Suki, the Cookie, Zuko, Aang, Toph – assuming she was still alive – and the entire rebellion downstairs. If she went down, she'd not take anyone with her.

"Not much," Katara answered simply, and blinked for a moment, raising a hand to her mouth and tapping her lower lip with one fingertip. "I know that a lot of the other kids have weird abilities, now. And I know they're not supposed to use them, by order of the Dai Li." Yes, yes, that was clever; she made it sound like she _didn't _have any bending abilities. That was just another advantage to add to the list. It was rather reassuring to be able to feel so triumphant in the face of this woman, and with a screaming headache, no less. It let Katara know she could still enjoy herself, even while fighting a rebel war.

Su's eyes narrowed a little more. "Every student knows all that," she thought aloud, and then tugged the corners of her mouth down. "I was under the impression that you … knew a little more."

Really, now? Well, then, she was shit out of luck. Katara knew nothing at all about bending. Nothing. She would stick to that story, no matter what.

Katara shook her head. "Nope," she shrugged apologetically. "Afraid not. Can you tell me more about it?"

Su looked horrified for a moment, before shaking her head. "Afraid not," she clenched her teeth and drew a breath. "Have you heard anything? About, say, activation?"

Katara blinked like an idiot. "What's that?"

At this point, Katara was sure Su would just give up, but she didn't. A smirk drew up from the corners of the woman's mouth again. "I know you're lying, Katara," she stated plainly, and took the last sip of her tea. "And I'll find out whatever it is you know, I can promise you that," she continued to smirk at the younger girl, and she put her cup down.

Katara just smirked right back, and said nothing.

"You may go."

'_Don't mind if I do,' _Katara thought to herself smugly, as she got up to leave.

* * *

><p>"Yes! Grand slam! Excellent footwork, Tao!" Charlie smacked the aforementioned on the back, as he jogged back to the bleachers from the field, having stolen first base just before another player hit a home run. They were in the lead now, and it would be near impossible for the other team to get even close to their score before the end of the final inning. "You're fast, man," Charlie clapped the lean boy again, a huge, shit-eating grin spread on his face. Not even a hostile commie takeover could mar the feeling you got when your team was winning by a landslide. The Dai Li could never change baseball.<p>

Zuko, from afar, trained an eye on the two, as Charlie rounded up players and sent them out to field while the other team was at bat. Zuko himself had been benched after taking a flying baseball to the face. Not one of his finer moments, but it beat running around after a ball when he had more important things to think about. That Tao kid was really starting to bother him.

Honestly; how did nobody else see this as suspicious? He was Chinese – obviously – and had shown up the same time as the Dai Li. This kid had to be a cadet or something - like some evil-doer-in-training, perhaps. Zuko tried to push this to the back of his mind; what could a good base runner possibly do to harm them, anyway? Rat on people, perhaps, but otherwise …

Zuko found himself scoffing a humorless laugh; he hadn't thought Lydia could do any damage to them when she had shown up, and he remembered how that had turned out. And this was worse again; he was a commie in training! He had to be!

Either that, or he was paranoid and didn't like Devils fans.

He breathed a sigh and glanced at the expensive Rolex on his wrist. Maybe he'd feel better after lunch period, after spending it making up plans with the other rebels to take out the Dai Li. Aang probably had some words of wisdom to dish out, right? He usually did. A hand went up to Zuko's chin, and he wondered what his uncle might say about his paranoid tendencies to suspect people just for being from New Jersey.

'_Zuko, to conquer your enemies you must …' _the scarred teen searched his mind for a second half to his proverb, _'… learn to think like them?'_

It made sense in his head, but he couldn't see himself actually trying it. He didn't really want to know what kind of thoughts Tao had in his head – they probably had to do with pulling the legs off spiders and killing cats and eating them with pickles on the side. And he had more important things to think about, anyway. With some distaste, he wondered if Sokka would have some wisdom at a time like this, too. Sokka wasn't savvy on a lot of things, but he had the most experience with paranoia, of all of his friends. Sokka had probably already guessed that Zuko and Katara were more than just friends. This dismayed Zuko.

The game passed. Zuko's team won, as expected. They had been doing so for a while now, since Charlie had made a real team out of his half of the gym class, and the Dai Li physical educators allowed Charlie to pick his team each lesson. Charlie brought Tao and another player – Jack something, a boy of Scottish descent, with flaring red hair and severe blue eyes – over to Zuko, to ask him about something or other. Zuko saw them coming and pulled a face, moving to get up before they could draw near. The class was over, and as much as he hated wearing a uniform, changing back into it was a lot more appealing than hanging around here.

"Zuko!" Charlie called, approaching.

Zuko scowled, turned to face them and greeted them irritably. "Hey. Good game," he gave a brief smile, and then moved to leave.

Charlie laughed, obviously catching on that Zuko didn't really like Tao all that much. "I thought so," he smiled and glanced between Tao, Jack and Zuko, and then looked back to the Dai Li educators talking amongst themselves. Charlie continued to smile, and turned back to the scarred teen. "Listen, we're going to Vinny's ice cream parlor later on today, to give Tao a real Dahlia Coast welcome; why don't you join us?" he suggested amiably.

Zuko's good brow arched. Charlie was one of the boys who came to their rebel meetings under the school, so he wondered if he also suspected Tao, or if he wanted to meet after school and query as to whether Tao should join their ranks. If the latter was the case, Zuko would have to shoot him down; he wouldn't bring someone he suspected to the old gymnasium. He wouldn't risk the others' safety like that. "Sure," Zuko answered calmly, and even faked a smile for this Tao kid.

Jack, another boy involved in their secret meetings, spoke up. "Cool. Tao, come on, I'll fill you in on what _not _to order at Vinny's, 'kay?" Jack put a hand on Tao's shoulder, and began to lead him back toward the school. "Don't order anything but ice cream – everything else there is either undercooked or tastes like crap because of this weird cooking oil they use there …" his voice trailed off, the further they got from Zuko and Charlie.

Tao glanced back at Zuko, and the latter could swear he looked suspicious.

Once they were sure Tao couldn't hear them, Charlie spoke sideways to the Scorsese, sounding like an informant in an old spy movie. "I just want to keep tabs on him," Charlie explained discreetly. "Guess what his last name is," his eyes flickered from Tao's back to Zuko with a suspicious kind of glint in them.

Zuko just shot Charlie a look.

"Su," the other boy continued simply.

"As in Corporal _Ling Su?" _Zuko blinked for a moment, frowning.

Charlie nodded. "That's my guess," he waved a hand before shaking his head and moving after Tao and Jack, "I'll see you lunch period to talk it over."

Zuko made a face and reached a hand up to ruffle his hair thoughtfully. Well, that certainly made things more complicated; the Dai Li had a spy – or at least that's how Zuko saw Tao – nestled right in with the students. It was only luck that they'd stumbled upon him before someone let something slip about the secret meetings.

"Scorsese," a Dai Li agent spoke up, approaching. Zuko looked and saw him coming toward him from the baseball field; the bat and balls from the game in a nylon mesh sack slung over his shoulder. "Don't you think you'd best head to your next lesson?" the agent sneered severely, an expectant frown on his face.

Zuko moved on, pondering, thinking, and mulling things over, unsure whether or this new development was an advantage.

* * *

><p>"Alright, then!" Aang announced loudly, bounding into the secret gymnasium with one huge airbending bound in his step. Those already gathered turned their heads and moved toward him. His bending pupils took to the front of the crowd, which gathered around as though Aang were a side attraction at a circus. "I have good news and bad news everyone!" he spoke up, his mouth pulled to a happy grin.<p>

Judging by the look on his face, the good news overshadowed the bad.

The crew murmured, but silenced when Aang began to explain.

"Tonight, we'll mount our very first offensive on the Dai Li," he started, and this raised some cheers, which only added to the huge grin on his face. "That's the good news. We're set up to launch a small, rag-tag attack on the guarded building Jet's surveillance has led us to believe holds locations on further Dai Li patrols, routes, assemblies and bases," Aang gestured to Jet, who stood also in the front of the crowd, a thoughtful smile on his face. "By striking tonight, we'll gain information that'll further help us fight the Dai Li."

One of the rebels spoke up seriously. "What's the bad news?" and it was followed with murmurs.

Aang blinked for a moment, and then continued with all the confidence of a military general. "Only a handful of you have been chosen to attack tonight. We can't risk bringing along people who are only going to get in the way. Too many cooks in the kitchen spoil the broth, as they say. Which is why Jet and I have put together a list, of the names …" Aang drew a sheet of paper from his pocket, and began to unfold it. "… Of the people coming tonight."

Aang began to read out the names. His airbending students were included on the paper, as was he, Katara, Zuko and Jet, as well as three or four others; people who had taken well to the shooting practice with Katara, or Zuko's kendo teachings – as little patience as Zuko had with anyone he was trying to teach, always getting frustrated and such, he did have a few talented ones. All in all, it was about ten people, and Aang trusted every person on the list to pull their own weight, and keep their silence should they be captured. For the cause.

"Everyone else," Jet took a spot near Aang and turned to face the crowd, "is requested to stay vigilant tonight. If there are knocks on the door, be careful not to give anything away. Amongst yourselves, you should come up with alibis for your friends, the ones coming tonight. If you want to help despite not tagging along, just do what you can. Everyone whose name is on the list, you can meet up with us at eight o'clock, opposite the used car lot on 16th street."

The crowd began to disperse, just as the door into the gymnasium was pushed open. The rebels froze and took defensive stances, but once Katara and Zuko stepped in, they relaxed and went about their business. Upon seeing the others moving out of a crowd, Zuko and Katara exchanged curious glances, and approached Aang and Jet.

"What's going on?" Zuko spoke up, his brow furrowed and his mouth set in a hard line.

Aang smiled quickly at Zuko, and leapt into explanation. "I just announced our first attack on the Dai Li. I wanted to tell you guys sooner, but Jet only came up with the idea this morning," the Avatar nudged Jet quickly to illustrate his point. Jet blinked as though he hadn't been paying attention.

A look of concern washed over Katara's face. "What? When? Where?" she grimaced, and raised a hand to pinch the bridge of her nose. To Aang, it looked rather like she had a headache – either that or she was just frustrated. Aang recalled that she had spent the better part of the morning sat in a 'Corporal Su's office, being interrogated, for want of a better word. He should have liked to know how that had gone.

"Tonight. We're meeting up on 16th street at eight, and from there we'll be launching a small, covert attack on a medium-security Dai Li data-bank in the city," Jet yawned rather loudly, before running a hand down his face. He glanced between Zuko and Katara. "It's probably best if you _don't _go in your-," Jet made a fake cough, "_—usual … _incognito attire … if you know what I mean."

The two stared for a moment, confused as to what he meant. Then they realized he was telling them not to go as the Blue Spirit and the Painted Lady; though that had been a real no-brainer already. They didn't want anyone at school knowing they were the illustrious vigilante and super-criminal that had been running amok in this city for the past four months. Yes, they trusted the other rebels, but you could never be too safe. Plus, if word got out that the Blue Spirit and the Painted Lady were rebelling against them, the Dai Li would up their security everywhere, even though Zuko was pretty sure that they'd have their work cut out for them fighting earthbenders tonight; airbenders or none. Guns misfired, and hand-to-hand wouldn't stand up to bending. He was rather sure he'd be okay with his swords, though, so that was a plus at the very least.

"Alright, we'll be there. But we've got something important to tell you guys too," Katara interjected, and crossed her arms over her chest authoritatively. Zuko guessed see was about to tell them what they had been talking about on the way here, and he was right. "Zuko?" blue eyes shifted to gold, and she arched a brow.

Zuko took this as his cue to go, and he began to explain what he had found out. "I talked to one of the other rebels; we suspect one of the kids in my new gym class of being a spy for the Dai Li. I thought it was weird when he showed up. Chinese kid, and he showed up around the same time as the Dai Li. I didn't figure it out until today, though, when someone told me what the kid's last name was," Zuko's fingers fidgeted; a habit they'd picked up as a result of sleep deprivation. His golden eyes fixed on the twiddling of his hands, and even he himself found it irritating. "Tao Su," he finished sharply.

Jet frowned immediately. "Su? I've heard that before," he looked away for a moment, to the floor.

"That's because it's the same last name as the woman they've got interrogating me," Katara added bluntly, and she caught sight of Zuko's hands twitching out of the corner of her eye, instantly finding a look of worry taking over her face. She looked back to the others. "Zuko took me to spy on this guy, and he's the spitting image of Corporal Su - which means he's a relation, and the Dai Li have their _kids _helping them," Katara shuddered irritably.

Aang tilted his head curiously, lifted a hand and scratched at his bald scalp. He may have made a 'hmm' sound, but to Zuko it seemed like he just took this in and calculated it thoughtfully.

Zuko sighed with exhaustion and shook his head. "Anyway, later today, after school, I'm going with some other rebels to find out what we can about this Tao guy. It shouldn't run long; I'll be with you for the attack."

"Good idea," Aang pointed to Zuko and nodded affirmatively. "Be careful. He might be a bender."

The alarm clock sitting on the desk against one wall went off, and the others began to head back toward the main school building; the alarm was there to make sure they got up to the main level before the Dai Li noticed they were gone, and to make sure it didn't look too suspicious, suddenly reappearing when it was time to check in at homeroom. Aang, Jet, Zuko and Katara bid their farewells and arranged to meet at eight, before parting ways.

* * *

><p>Katara tapped a fingertip to her temple, as if she thought it would help alleviate the pressure of her headache, as she and Zuko walked the empty hallway from the cafeteria to the outside world. The Dai Li kept the halls clear of loitering students; Katara guessed it was probably because they couldn't justify having Dai Li spying on students in the hallways. After all; break time and lunch hour was supposed to be 'free time' for them, as begrudgingly as they gave it. And there was nothing free about the way they were kept here. It was like some kind of child-monitoring station, or some other, better analogy that would take more concentration – concentration Katara didn't really want to give.<p>

Zuko was walking a few feet behind her, his eyes pointed forward, toward the glass door leading outside, but somehow still staring into a middle-distant abyss of distraction. Katara looked over her shoulder to him, and in that moment the way he looked actually made her want to cry. He was the epitome of sleep deprivation. A dark circle seemed to have become permanent under his good eye, and his eyes had that half-glazed look that came from a night, maybe two nights without sleep or coffee. Katara wondered if he was still taking those ADD pills to stay awake.

"Hey," Zuko spoke up from behind her, and there was a tired undertone in his voice. He paused and craned his neck discreetly, while stifling a yawn in his head, in a fashion that told Katara he really didn't want her to know how exhausted he was. "I just remembered, we haven't gone to get your horse."

Katara blinked for a moment and then answered thoughtfully. "Oh, yeah; I nearly forgot. The whole … _world-being-taken-over _thing, you know," she chuckled halfheartedly, and another pulse of her headache washed over her, causing her to wince. She bit back the urge to murmur something less than ladylike.

Zuko gave the same kind of weary smile, and his eyes moved down to the floor. "Yeah …" he answered, his voice barely above a mumble.

Katara tilted her head, wondering if that would help her headache. "Oh, well … I guess I'll text Song later to see what we can set up. There's plenty of room on the fields behind my house for a horse, and my dad knows a good feed store just outside of the city. I'll get him to set up a paddock, or something."

"Mm," Zuko murmured his reply, and stopped walking, his head hanging lower.

Katara kept walking a few steps before she realized Zuko had stopped. She first looked back, and then turned to face him completely, a frown taking over her face. Why had he stopped? He was just standing there … staring at the floor, his chin now resting against his chest. One of Katara's brows arched suspiciously, and a rather comical look of confusion wiped over the initial frown.

"Zuko?" she asked quietly, and tilted her head a little more. Her headache pulsed again, but she ignored it. Was he … uh … was he okay?

It was at this point that Katara realized his eyes were doing that slow, side-to-side sway thing that you see when you pull open people's eyes while they're asleep. Understanding seeped into Katara's brain, and she rolled her head in a long _'oh, right' _motion, and watched him for a moment. Zuko was finally, _finally _asleep.

The next thing that happened, Katara wasn't sure whether it was Zuko's brain kicking him awake, or a nightmare, but Zuko suddenly jerked to life with a sudden yelp.

"Huh? What?" was the first thing to spill out of his mouth, and his eyes stopped doing that little swaying dance, instead going wide and looking around, the left one looking almost reptilian from behind its scarred lid.

Katara just stared at him, unsure what expression she should try to put on her face.

Zuko stared too, and then he realized what had happened. "Wha-," he stopped and shook his head for a moment, sending floppy black hair back and forth as he did it. "Sorry, I … how long was I … ?" he seemed to be half embarrassed, and half just plain disturbed. It looked like he hadn't accounted for this happening.

Katara suddenly scowled irritably. "Not long. A few seconds. But you can't fall asleep like that on a _mission._"

The scarred teen swallowed, shook his head again and then shuddered as though he were trying to shake it off. "I uh … sorry," he repeated, and raised a hand to rub at his good eye. Katara continued to stare at him, her eyes scolding, and his lips thinned against one another. "It won't happen again," he added huskily.

Katara didn't look convinced.

"Go to sleep, Zuko. Go home and take a nap, or something, before you come out tonight. You could get _hurt _like this," she put her hands on her hips and brought her brows down hard.

Zuko considered this; he wondered if he'd feel better after a nap. But then he told himself that if he slept now, he'd have trouble waking himself up for the mission. "I can't. But after, okay? As soon as I get home after tonight, I'll go straight to sleep. 'Kay?" he lifted the hand at his good eye up to his hair and ruffled it irritably. "I'm … really tired," he spoke groggily, and only then did he realize he'd said it aloud. _'Damn it – I have word salad,' _the subsequent look on his face seemed to say.

Word salad, of course, was the jumbling of verbalization that came when Sokka mixed himself up.

"I can see that," Katara replied, her hard expression suddenly leaning more toward worry. "Don't run yourself to death, Zuko. I'm serious about this." She crossed her arms over her chest and set her face in a hard frown that was almost, but not quite, threatening. She could see herself breaking into his house and tying him up in his bed and _making_ him sleep, if this went on any longer. And he was so out of it that she could do it, too.

Zuko smiled tiredly. "I know, and I won't."

But somewhere in his mind, he wondered.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So, what do I say? It's been two months since I updated, but it feels like more. I've had a hectic 2012, to say the least. It's starting to look like the world might really end. This chapter feels … not quite right. It doesn't feel like the stuff I've written before, you know?**

**But nothing feels normal lately. I need a vacation.**

**Wow, I'm really gloomy, huh? Want to know why?**

**I couldn't write, because I was frustrated, and then I got frustrated because I wasn't writing. One of my horses died, quite randomly. It was rather like when my lamb, Pingu, died. Just a freak accident. I was starting to think I just had bad luck, but other people around me say they feel it too. Cue Twilight zone music. Tess – we'd had her since just before my parents divorced. She was pregnant with her first foal, and all I can say is, it was a freak accident. There are no words.**

**On my brothers birthday, this just past Wednesday, we got news that my grandmother, on my father's side had croaked. Kidney failure, at 5AM. I wasn't close to her, but she was always nice to me. I have to go to the funeral now, this Wednesday, to support my dad. We always used to joke that Mamgu (welsh for grandma) looked like dad in a wig. Argh. Why am I reminiscing? I don't like my dad, anyhow. This is just obligation.**

**The weirdest thing of all is that I feel the opposite of what you'd expect. I feel … nothing. It's a most peculiar feeling.**

**Oh, well. Sorry to go on; I know you've been waiting, and I was waiting too – I wanted this … _thing … _to pass before I went on with this story. But, I'll just have to get my act together. Interestingly, I think I might be able to write more like myself if I dictate. But I have no dictation program. YET.**

**I have no words to say how sorry I am … how about I just … nuzzle your shoes? :3**

**This chapter was longer again, but I saw no end in sight. So I've split it in two. The next will be up soon; right now I have to get dressed at one in the morning to go and check that one of our foaling mares hasn't had any birthing complications. We've already had one foal on the ground this year, the first by our new stallion. A little perlino (albino, if you will) filly with blue eyes. We named her Lil' Nell.**

**Lyrics are from Fall Out Boy's EPIC 'Dance Dance'.**

**Hope your 2012 is going better than mine! :3**

**Review; it's your opportunity to tell me what a useless updater I am. -.-**


	11. Man, What Are You Doing Here?

Lydia had taken to carrying an Evian water bottle at all times. She wasn't good at combat – the way the Dai Li were – but she was sure there had to be things her bending could come in handy for, so she kept this bottle on a long string, over her shoulder and hanging at her hip. She usually wore a reporter's coat at school, so she could cover it from the Dai Li, too. When she had to take her coat off, she discreetly removed the bottle too, and hid it inside the coat.

The only downside to carrying this with her was that she could feel it _all the time. _It was most distracting. Still, she supposed it wasn't as bad as _not _having water nearby; that usually had her clawing at the walls and focusing on people's sweat and condensation and random little tidbits of water in food and stuff, which she found rather irritating. If she'd read 'The Dark Tower' series, she'd have likened it to Roland's need for the key Eddie had carved to bring Jake back to Mid-World.

On the subject of books, Lydia had taken to her mother's old files on research, and was quickly learning the ropes of her mother's job. It seemed she had made her decision on which career path to follow, and she was happy with her choice. After all, Katherine was a mess already, following the death of Richard Mason – a man Lydia truly believed her mother had loved dearly. Atop that, they hadn't even been able to attend the funeral. Katherine's new security guards had dubbed it a risk. The Dai Li wanted Katherine's silence, and they'd be at the funeral to secure it. Katherine had had to send a stranger with a photograph to identify the body for her.

Lydia was glad at least, that Alistair was here with her mother while she went to school. Mother needed someone to support her, and Lydia knew she wasn't very good at fluffy, lovey-dovey stuff. Except with her fiancé, of course. They'd always be close, no matter what. Lydia wondered if Richard had been like that for Katherine, and it made her feel worse for her mother's loss.

Lydia shut the front door of the terracotta adobe colonial her mother owned, and stepped into the main hall, where the lights were all on, bright and shining, the whole house full of light from them. The curtains were all drawn back, and sunlight poured in, breathing life back into the house. Lydia wondered where her mother was. A clinking noise down in the laboratory led Lydia to believe Katherine was working. Lydia decided to leave her be.

The blonde breathed a sigh and removed her coat and schoolbag, putting them on the loveseat in the grand hall. She moved to the staircase and climbed them wearily; exhausted from a day of watching her back and being sure the Dai Li weren't tailing her. It was stressful, and draining, to be paranoid.

Once in the upstairs hallway, Lydia moved toward her bedroom, sure that Alistair would be there waiting for her, possibly in the nude. That thought was appealing. However, as she crossed the hall, she heard the clonk-clack of her mother's shoes in the upstairs study, and she stopped in her tracks. If Katherine was up here, then who was in the laboratory? Lydia's eyes widened and she immediately turned toward the staircase.

The Roberts' girl seemed to float down the familiar staircase as though it was nothing, and she spun around the bottom of the banister and raced toward the laboratory. The aesthetic color schemes of the hall were a blur as she grabbed hold of the door leading down into the laboratory. She tugged it open and whizzed down yet another set of stairs, her hand going for the water bottle at her hip, unscrewing the cap. She hoped she could pick up some combat skills on instinct, god forbid there really was a Dai Li agent down there, and her paranoid suspicions were correct.

A snake of water flew up to her hand, as she rounded the bottom of the metal staircase and her head filled with images of the lab. Green eyes once likened to those of reptiles scanned the room suspiciously, and a frown took over her face. Lydia took a tentative step toward the counter, and she peered through a glass window in the basement laboratory, into the computer room. A look of confusion washed over Lydia's face.

What was Alistair doing down here?

"Alistair!" Lydia squeaked, her water going back into its bottle. She cleared her throat and cursed that graceless noise from it.

Her fiancé looked up from whatever he had been doing, and a smile took over his face, and Lydia was relieved that he wasn't doing anything … anything that might have been disadvantageous to them. Lydia shook her head, physically. What was she thinking? Was she really so paranoid that she would _suspect _Alistair? After he'd been with her for so long, and held her while she cried, she'd really suspect him of being a Dai Li informant? She laughed inwardly; how silly of her.

Alistair came out of the computer room with a sheet of paper in his hand, still smiling that reassuring smile. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you, love," he approached, leant down and put a little kiss to the tip of her nose.

Lydia blinked at him, and then put her hands on her hips, shooting him a look of irritation. "What are you doing down here?" she arched a brow.

Alistair showed her the piece of paper. "Just looking at your mother's research. I thought I might be able to help, since she's a bit … indisposed."

Lydia realized he meant the incessant crying, loud sobbing and wailing like a banshee, and pulled a face. She crossed her arms over her chest, sighed and eventually smiled reluctantly. "You shouldn't be down here, darling. If I haven't already said it, I'm saying it now. And besides; you're supposed to be naked in my bed when I get home," she turned away from him and smirked over her shoulder, leading the way back up the stairs.

Alistair smiled, laughed nonchalantly, tucked the sheet of paper away, and followed her back up to the first floor.

* * *

><p>'<em>I didn't want this! Oh god, what … what have I <strong>done?<strong>' _

'_You wanted every part of this, my friend. She was in our way.'_

'_In **your **way! And now … now she's …'_

Katara gasped out and jerked herself awake, finding herself lay on her stomach in the living room. Last thing she remembered, she had been in the kitchen, reaching for the Lucky Charms, and suddenly, here she was, asleep on the couch. She blinked a few times and got into a sitting position, rubbing at her eyes. Katara assumed she had sleepwalked here.

She was pretty sure it wasn't good to be falling asleep like that.

Her mind turned to her dream. It was that dream, from months ago, long before Jonathan Prescott, and before she'd been the Painted Lady … it was the dream that had haunted her for years. The Spaniard, seemingly arguing with himself, and Kya pleading with him, and the thirteen-year-old Katara hiding behind something, and the scream, and then …

'**BANG!'**

Katara stared into the darkened room for a moment, thinking. God, how she had hated that day; the day everything had fallen apart. One bullet, and her world had crumbled. Her face twisted in distaste, the memory sinking in, like ink into cloth. She hadn't thought about it in so long, but dreams had a funny way of bringing up the past, and renewing painful memories. It seemed Katara hadn't gone a night without a dream in ages. Technically, a person dreams _every _night, but for the longest time, Katara had woken up each morning, able to remember her dreams of the night prior.

She'd never thought she would miss dreamless sleep. Even in her bed, now, she was alert. In her dreams, she was looking over her shoulder. Kelly might have told her it was to do with stress, but in these times, who _wasn't _stressed? It was now common practice to bow to the Dai Li, and watch your back wherever you went. Anyone who _wasn't _stressed was a psychopath, or a Dai Li agent.

Wait, scratch that. The two went hand in hand.

Katara blinked a few more times, and got up. One hand came up and she glanced at the old, hand-me-down sports watch Sokka had given her a few months ago. She remembered she had to subtract eighteen minutes from whatever time it showed her, and concluded that it was just past five o' clock. Zuko was probably with those guys in his gym class right now, watching that Tao kid. Katara considered going back to sleep, but shrugged this off and then moved out of the living room and up the stairs, toward her bedroom. A flash of light from the window caught her eyes and her headache pumped back to life.

In the chaos of all that was happening, Katara hadn't had a moment to think about that night on the boat, after taking Sokka and Suki somewhere safe. She could remember holding Zuko in her arms, feeling him shaking, and hoping he would fall asleep. Even if she'd had to wake him up to dock, whatever sleep he could have gotten would've been worth it. She didn't even have the energy to really worry about his lack of sleep. She could only focus on moving forward with fighting the Dai Li; with keeping Sokka and Suki safe, and with maintaining what she could.

Ollie, who was lounging at the top of the stairs, lifted his head, regarded her in kind, and then went back to loafing in the sunbeam that glowed through the hallway window.

Katara had been trying to find those men – to remember their faces – with Kelly's help. And now Kelly was gone. Just like …

'_Dr. Marina, Dr. Marina!'_

'_**Damn you, **you fool! Blubbering idiot! We must leave!'_

'_But … b-but …'_

'_Come along!'_

Katara lifted a hand and held it to the side of her face. Her headache was coming back, and she was hearing voices again. It was just a matter of time until the long-absent angel and devil that lived on her shoulders returned to annoy her. Briefly, she considered the medicine cabinet in her father's bathroom, but she quickly shoved this thought away.

Instead, she marched into her room and grabbed up her mother's diary, delving into her investigation again. She'd long neglected her search for her mother's killers, and Dai Li takeover or not, this was something she had to do, no matter what. And there'd be hell to pay when she found them.

* * *

><p>The rebels met at eight o' clock, hidden in the shadows of the alley opposite a used car lot on sixteenth street, deep in the heart of the city. Some were earlier than others, but once Aang arrived, whatever murmurings of shifting paranoia they might have been making ceased, and they all fell into a deliberate silence. When Aang joined them, he saw that they had all dressed in uniform; not their school uniforms, but in the same kind of attire. They all wore black, long-sleeve shirts, dark jeans and sneakers, with their faces covered by sunglasses and black scarves up over their mouths and noses. Aang guessed Jet had given them some extra pointers. Some of the others also had rucksacks on their backs; probably for guns, baseball bats and any other items they had deemed handy to keep with them. The two swordplay students Zuko and Jet had taught carried their weapons of choice at their hips, in sheaths, not seeing the point in wasting time to conceal them in duffle bags or whatever.<p>

Jet and Zuko showed up in the same attire; dark jeans, black shirts, sunglasses, sneakers, sunglasses and scarves. Jet and Zuko carried their swords in sheaths on their backs. Now it was just Katara to wait for. Zuko had guessed she _would _be the last one to arrive – just why, he wasn't sure.

Jet further explained the mission while they were waiting.

"The building not far from here, in the city, a few blocks from Cures USA – where we're guessing the Dai Li have set up their base of operations in Dahlia Coast. At most, there'll be ten to fifteen Dai Li agents there guarding it, and at the very least, there'll be five. There are eleven of us, so it should be pretty fair game, assuming we're all able to each take out one Dai Li agent.

"Longshot will be nearby, sniping, if it's necessary, and Pipsqueak is our getaway driver. Any questions?"

And there were none. Nobody asked where Smellerbee and The Duke were; guaranteed they were doing something useful.

Katara showed up three minutes late, apparently having had to take a detour to avoid a Dai Li patrol. She hopped down from a fire escape, down into the alley, dusted herself off, smiled in turn to each of the others, and then pulled up the black bandana on her neck to cover her mouth and nose, and pulling down the sunglasses she'd pushed back past her hairline. She'd tied her hair back in a messy bun to keep it out of the way, and dressed in the same manner as the others. Aang wondered if it was really smart to wear sunglasses at night to obscure identities; he thought it might dull their reaction speed. He didn't say anything.

At this point, Jet peered around the corner to check that there were no Dai Li agents around. His hand came up beside him, and waved them around in a 'go ahead' signal. They wouldn't have much time to work with; there was a curfew for a reason, and as soon as the Dai Li spotted a group of uniformed teenagers with rucksacks on their backs and their faces hidden, they'd realize something was up. They'd recognize rebels on their streets like they would flies on a cake. And they'd set about swatting them, too.

They raced along a shadow cast by a building in the light of the waning moon, and then broke their cover to dash across an avenue, and run further along the sixteenth street, toward the tall Cures USA building growing steadily nearer. The bottoms of their shoes smacked against he ground as they ran, like the scattered applause of a mediocre performance.

Zuko wasn't quite sure how they survived to the building they planned to raid tonight, but they did. The Dai Li didn't spot them, like he had spent every moment of the run expecting them to, and no flying hands of clay had come to secure them to the tarmac under their feet. His eyes darted around from behind his sunglasses, wary. Katara finally drew a gun from the back of her jeans – it wasn't one of her golden ones, because that would be too obvious – and approached the locked double doors into the building. Zuko watched her carefully; to be sure nothing happened. Just what he thought might happen, was beyond him. Paranoia had set into every aspect of his consciousness.

Katara drew a breath, glanced up to the others. Jet nodded, readying himself to direct them in, and Aang got ready to follow. Zuko locked gazes with her, his expression as hard as hers had been earlier, in the hallway.

'_Careful in there,' _was what he was trying to say telepathically, and he believed she got the message, because she gave him an affirming nod, and clacked back the hammer of the Glock in her hand.

The deafening explosion of a gunshot pierced the air, and all ears around Katara began to ring out inside their heads. Katara pulled back as soon as se shot open the locked doors, and shoved them open. Jet was the first one in, followed by Aang and Zuko, respectively. Aang's three airbenders were the next ones, and then the two that pulled guns from their backpacks, and the two that tugged their guitar cases from their backs to pull their swords out. Katara flanked them, and raised her gun, stepping into the darkness after them.

They stepped into what looked like a lobby, all drawing weapons and taking stances, while moving toward the elevators.

Dai Li agents were already piling out from the stairwell doors – one, five, seven … nine. Jet seemed to have miscalculated. If there were seven down in the lobby, how many were there in file storage? Twenty? Thirty? Zuko cursed this whole attack, only four seconds into the building. This should have been a stealth operation; he and Katara and Aang should have just snuck in, taken what they needed, and snuck back out without even alerting the Dai Li. Or at least, that was one possibility. For all he knew, he and Katara alone might not have been sufficient for the job.

After all, Katara would have shot open the lock whether there were two or ten people with her, and that had brought nine agents to the lobby just in itself.

"What, you waiting for the wind to change?" Katara brushed past him, turning on her heel as she went to flash him a quick smile behind the bandana and sunglasses that slower eyes wouldn't have caught. The gunmetal in her hand gleamed in the flickering, awakening fluorescent lights overhead. One of her bullets whistled across the lobby and whizzed toward an agent, who knocked it away with ease. The quick smile fell away to a frown of annoyance, as though she had forgotten how frustrating Dai Li agents were to fight.

Jet sprang into action, and his swords were out in a flash, with a satisfying _ching _of a sound. Behind his scarf, a smirk grew. He said nothing, and dove for the ground to avoid a clay fist headed his way. The Dai Li agents arranged themselves in a neat line, like that of a battalion. It was predictable, but it also drew strength in numbers. One of Katara's shooters fired a shot from a semi-automatic into one of the agents' chests, and sent them falling backward.

A scowl grew on Aang's face; he hadn't wanted to kill tonight, or any night. That wasn't how he wanted to do things. At the look of surprise on the kid who'd shot that bullet, Aang realized that he hadn't meant to kill either. The scowl on his face deepened, and he half expected the boy to drop the gun to the panel flooring under them. The gun stayed put, albeit in now shaking hands.

"Aim for the legs," came a quick instruction, and Aang's eyes shifted to Katara, who was firing bullet after bullet at Dai Li agents' legs, and missing with each dodge to the left or right that they made.

At this point, an agent's bending shattered the tiles under the Avatar's feet and sent the broken shards toward him, sharp and ready to cut. Aang's airbending was not generally used to block or defend – airbending tactics had always been to _avoid _the enemy's attack, rather than try to live through it. Aang was no exception, and he assumed a stance, his feet working lightly under him, moving out of the way. His hands went up to counter.

A clay hand crossed the air behind Aang as he ducked out of its path, probably aimed at someone else, and only nearly catching him in the crossfire by coincidence. His gray eyes flickered in the direction of the hand he'd ducked – it shattered against the blade of one of the other rebels, who'd swung it like a baseball bat. The same blade came hard against an earthen one forced against its wielder. In Aang's distraction, a clay fist thumped into his ribs, sending him reeling back.

He set his mouth in a hard line, turning his eyes back to his attacker, who was now joined by a second. The Avatar drew his arms up and focused his mind. He needed to let everything else fall away for his bending to be precise. The chaos of his mind dulled to a silence. His eyes fixed on his target. Aang's hands swirled decisively, and small ripples formed in the still air, before he swung the air in a blade at the Dai Li agents, sideways, sweeping them right off their feet.

Aang wished in that moment he'd learnt some earthbending, or some waterbending, before fleeing all those years ago. Then he'd be able to imprison Dai Li agents without hurting them too much. Air was the element of freedom, and so it had no power to imprison. It could incapacitate, and it could cut and swirl, but if one cannot catch the wind, then the wind cannot catch you.

His eyes scanned the now-lit lobby, counting the agents in that deep, almost-black shade of green. There had been nine. Now there were five. Jet's swords hooked on the heavy-duty boots of one of the Dai Li agents and tugged his legs out from under him. Four left. A hopeful smile grew on Aang's face – things were going well, all things considered.

Katara gave a grunt of irritation, as she fired another three bullets at the same first agent she'd been fighting for the first few seconds of this attack. She needed to reload. "Piece of junk!" she groaned, half considering throwing the gun and hoping it hit the agent between the eyes. _'Please work. Please, please work …' _she turned her eyes toward the plant pot on the windowsill behind her, turning quickly and reaching for it. A clay hand whipped past her and grabbed for her ponytail. If it had caught it, it would have tugged Katara's head to the left so fast her neck would have snapped. Luck was on her side.

An icy cold waterwhip snapped across the air and hit the Dai Li agent in the chest, throwing him back. Katara's bright blue eyes bulged in surprise.

"Whoo!" Katara yelped, throwing her arms up. "I did it!" she exclaimed, a grin spreading on her face.

Jet knocked down another agent, around the same time Zuko kicked one into a reception desk and sent both sliding across the floor for a moment. Two of Aang's airbenders sent the final one swinging through their grip and out through the glass window, into the street. They high-fived one another with a loud cheer. Jet considered telling them to quiet down, but ultimately decided against it. There'd have been no point.

Aang nodded to each of them in turn. "Good work! Come on!" and he gestured as he ran toward the stairwell; they couldn't use the elevator now, for fear the Dai Li would cut the cable while it traveled, sending them plummeting to their deaths. "The files are on the fifth floor!"

The rebels followed. Katara was still grinning after her little waterbending feat; Pakku's lessons were paying off. She glanced to Zuko, beside her, as they ran, and grinned at him. He smiled at her, briefly, and then turned his eyes back in the direction they were moving. He'd have plenty of time to congratulate her when this was over. Hopefully.

* * *

><p>"Going somewhere?" Toph's voice rang out from behind Smellerbee, who was quickly pulling jeans on over her under-attire; she was staying with Smellerbee and Longshot as of yet, in an abandoned old apartment building marked for demolition. Toph sensed a rise in Smellerbee's blood pressure, as the freedom fighter buckled up her jeans and set about pulling a shirt on. She could hear the shower in the next room.<p>

Smellerbee coughed involuntarily, surprised at Toph's stealth. "Stop sneaking up on me! You'd be annoyed if I did it to you!"

Toph arched a brow and smirked, raising a hand to fiddle with her nose piercing on force of habit. "Heh. Nobody can sneak up on me."

Smellerbee rolled her eyes and glared at the blind girl, who didn't get the full effect of the glare. "Whatever. Just stop it."

"Sure, no problem," Toph answered in a nonchalant tone, and took some swaggering, aimless steps toward Smellerbee, into the dusty room Smellerbee now called hers. "So, where are you going?" she asked again, one bare foot kicking up dirt on the dry, cracked wood floor, her voice somewhere between curiosity and disinterest.

Smellerbee gave a snort, as she pushed her hair back from her face. "Jet asked me and Longshot to be on standby, in case the raid goes haywire tonight."

One of Toph's brows arched up. "Raid? What's he raiding?"

"Not 'he' – 'they'. The secret rebel group they've got going under the school is raiding a building they think the Dai Li have patrol routes and squadron locations guarded in. Your boyfriend's with them," Smellerbee shot the blind girl a look, with a kind of distaste in her tone.

"Ex," Toph corrected curtly, and raised a hand to rub at her jaw thoughtfully. "Isn't that a bit risky – for their first raid? The Dai Li will probably have it locked up tighter than Fort Knox," she pointed out, thinking aloud.

Smellerbee laughed humorlessly. "I thought you didn't care what the rebels were doing."

"I don't. Jus' saying, y'know," Toph's brows came down and she set her mouth in a hard line, crossing her arms over her chest.

The freedom fighter drew a sigh and shrugged. "They're pretty sure they can handle it. Marina has her guns, Jet and Zuko have their swords - not to mention the whole magic-air-bendy thing Tyson's got going on."

Toph pulled a face, knowing all too well about the magic-air-bendy thing Aang had going for him. "Mm," she grunted, and exhaled heavily. "I'll get dressed too," she turned to the door, moving to head back to the room she presently called home.

Smellerbee stood straighter and opened her mouth to tell Toph that that wouldn't be necessary, but then she just let a smile wash over her face, and shook her head. In the bathroom adjoining her bedroom, she heard the shower turn off, and she glanced toward the door to see Longshot rubbing his hair dry with a towel, looking as though he'd gotten dressed without bothering to dry his skin.

Longshot gave her a hard look, obviously wondering what the smirk on her face was about.

Smellerbee's smile grew. "She still cares about him," she stated, somewhat amused, and thoughtful.

Longshot nodded silently, his eyes softening.

* * *

><p>"We'll go in; you guys stay out here and make sure nobody comes through this door," Jet clapped Zuko on the arm amiably, and gestured first to the heavy door ahead, and then to the scarred teen and Katara. "Stay on your guard," he reminded, and forced back the smirk that came to his mouth.<p>

Zuko's eyes narrowed. "What's _that _supposed to mean?" he seethed quietly, careful not to let anyone but Jet hear him.

Jet shrugged evasively. "Nothing, nothing at all," he gave tiny chuckle, lifted a hand and adjusted his sunglasses. "Just try not to get distracted," he gestured discreetly to Katara, behind him, who was glancing around carefully, while reloading her weapon. The corners of Jet's mouth tilted up and he arched a brow, his expression one that quite simply said 'I know what's going on there'.

And honestly, why shouldn't he? Zuko obviously had _no idea _how to keep a relationship under wraps. Jet would have had to be blind not to see the quick, 'check-to-see-she-hasn't-gotten-hurt' glances Zuko kept giving Katara when he thought nobody was paying attention.

At this point, Zuko glanced down at the floor and took a calculated step, right only where Jet's shoelaces were dragging on the floor in the hallway toward the door up ahead.

Jet made an unintelligible noise as he tumbled forward, caught himself swiftly against the wall, and glanced back to where Zuko had trapped his shoelaces against the floor, under his sneaker. His eyes flickered to Zuko's face, and caught a subtle smirk behind sunglasses staring back at him. Jet pouted childishly as Zuko passed him.

"Don't get _distracted, _Jet," Zuko uttered smugly as he passed, "You might trip."

Jet tried to stick his tongue out at Zuko, and then tasted his scarf and made a face, before regaining his composure and shaking it off. Maybe he wouldn't try teasing the Scorsese again; he put up an admirable counter-offense. Besides, Jet supposed he wouldn't like anyone doing it to him if he and Jin wanted to keep their relationship secret for a little while. And Zuko did have a _reason _to keep it on the down low; Sokka would probably _freak _out if he found out.

He knew from experience that Sokka wasn't exactly … _supportive … _when it came to Katara and boys. It would probably be even worse after that whole Jonathan Prescott fiasco.

At this point, the girl in question brushed past Jet, and Zuko and the others until she was at the head of the pack again. Jet lifted his hands to place his fingers in his ears, expecting her to shoot open another locked door. "Gimme some light," Katara waved a hand back at the others, and tucked her gun into the back of her trousers. She drew a hairpin from her pocket and approached the door.

Yielding to her order, the others stepped out of the way, allowing some light from the street outside to pour in from the window over the staircase they'd just climbed. The light hit the door, and Katara moved out of the way herself, to get a little more light. She poked her tongue out and held it between her lips for a moment, as she lowered herself to her haunches and set about bending the tip of the hairpin. As she knelt, the fabric of her jeans stretched happily on that fabulous ass of hers, and Jet caught one of Zuko's students eyeing it carefully. Jet turned his eyes to Zuko, to see if the Scorsese had caught it too.

It took a little longer for Zuko to notice the other boy staring, because it had caught his attention too, but once Zuko looked up and caught the line of sight pointed in that direction, his brow(s) immediately came down, hard. He seemed to battle with himself in silence – it was most amusing to watch – and then resolved to just let it slide. Zuko crossed his arms and pouted.

Katara was, by this point in time, fiddling with the pin in the lock, her face a picture of concentration, and her other hand on the door handle. "Come on, you sonovabitch," she murmured threateningly to the door, as if her voice alone would get it to give in. She jittered the handle around a little, as she fiddled in the lock.

"You ever done this before, Katara?" Aang cleared his throat, speaking quietly.

"Coupla times," Katara answered briskly, her eyes narrowing to irritated slits. "Stupid fucking door!" she hissed, baring her teeth.

As she said this, the lock mechanism made a satisfying click of a noise, and Katara leant back for a moment, blinking. To Jet, it looked rather like she was thinking _'did I do it?' _but in hindsight, he supposed it could have been her wondering if someone was opening it from the other side. She tentatively twiddled the door handle again, eyes wide and hopeful. The handle came down smoothly, and the door clicked open.

Katara grinned and stood up, standing back. "Nearly forgot how much fun it was being bad," she shot Zuko a smile, and crossed her arms over her chest proudly.

Jet recognized that smile – he made it every morning when he saw Jin, and he shook his head, suppressing a laugh. "Alright, let's go!" he gestured to the door and then pushed ahead of the others. Aang, his three airbenders, the two swordplay boys, and Katara's shooters quickly followed suit and disappeared through the door, which swung shut as soon as they were through, leaving Katara and Zuko in silence.

Katara's smile faded away and she pushed her sunglasses up to the top of her head, blue eyes flickering in the dim light of the street outside to Zuko. "Did it happen again?" she whispered, making a face and pressing her back to the wall beside the door.

Zuko blinked, wondering what she meant for a moment, before he guessed she was talking about the 'falling-asleep-mid-conversation' thing. He sighed, raised a gloved hand and ruffled his hair thoughtfully. "No. Not since lunchtime," he answered glumly, and smiled wearily. "I'm really looking forward to seeing my bed, though."

This brought a smile to Katara's face. "Good. I was half-considering tying you down and _making _you go to sleep," she tossed her ponytail absentmindedly. Then she tilted her head as though she had remembered something. "Oh, yeah, what happened earlier? You went to Vinny's with Charlie to keep an eye on that Tao guy, didn't you?"

Zuko groaned aloud, careful to keep his voice down. "Yeah, it was a bust," he rasped, his voice low and irritated. "He must know we're on to him. He spent the whole time talking about the Devils' going for a super bowl ring next year. I swear, if I hear him knock Manning one more time, I'm going to blow my top," he chuckled mirthlessly.

Katara smiled, eyes fixed in the middle-distance, happy to hear him sounding like his old self, if even for just a short while. "Huh. I always figured you liked our home team, Zuko. I guess I forget you're from the big apple sometimes," she thought aloud, blinking and opening her mouth to a yawn. Her shoulders came up and she stretched her neck to one side.

"I haven't got anything against the Bullets; it's just that nobody beats the Giants. You saw what they did to the Patriots this year," Zuko grinned reminiscently, taking a few circling, aimless steps around before finally leaning against the wall and tilting his head to rest it against the drywall. "That last play … that was just _tragic._ Brady managed to get it _in _the end-zone, but it was just," Zuko made a 'pfft' noise between his lips, "too late," he shot her a smirk, crossed his arms and relaxed into the wall, satisfied with reliving great football in his head.

Katara's smile had grown to a full-fledged grin by now. "See, this is why you and Sokka get along."

"Yeah, when he doesn't think I'm whispering in your ear, _'Katara, kill yourself … go on, it'll be fun'_," he joked, lifting a hand, pushing his sunglasses up for a moment and rubbing at his good eye. Then he looked thoughtful for a moment, his hand going back down. "And, you know, when he eventually finds out about _us_."

Katara blinked, mulling this over. "Mm," she replied contemplatively. "Not looking forward to that."

Zuko turned his head and smiled tiredly. "Ah, well; we'll figure it out," he reassured her lightly, before his brow arched and he yawned. "Again …" he spoke, while yawning, so it sounded like 'arghh-en', "I can hear my bed … just calling me," he chuckled under his breath.

Katara didn't seem as happy with him saying it a second time. "Don't fall asleep," she reminded him. "'Cause I'm not carrying you home."

A heavy _whump _of a noise bashed against the door between them, awakening the two and bringing them to jerk to life – the kind of feeling you got just before you grabbed someone by the shirt and screamed '_don't jump out of shadows, you dumb-ass' _at them – before stepping back from the door and drawing their weapons defensively. Zuko glanced to Katara, who was pulling down her shades again.

There was a shout from past the door, and the two wondered if they should go in to help, just as the sounds of an earthen barrage echoed over the voices of their comrades. They had been tasked with keeping the Dai Li from getting through _this door. _If they went in there, and left the door open for more agents to come and corner them, they'd be downright fucked. As if on cue, the pads of footsteps – running – came against the steps toward them.

Zuko grunted decisively, and turned to face the oncoming enemies, his swords flashing out in the light of the city outside. The second the reflection of light on green velvet hit Katara's eyes, a bullet shot across the air and ricocheted off a helmet.

Katara fired another shot, this time piercing through the lead agent's forearm and sending him howling to the floor. He tumbled down the stairwell, tripping his fellow agents over. It reminded Katara of a game she and Sokka had used to play when they were little, when other kids came over to play; 'rolling sausages' was what Sokka had called it. In this game, all but one player would lie on the floor, arms pinned to sides, and roll from side to side, meanwhile, who ever was 'it' had to jump over the sausages and get to the other side of the 'pan'.

One of the agents managed to slip past the rolling sausage of a lead agent, and slid into view of Katara and Zuko, taking on a solid stance and bringing up the cement under his feet, through the linoleum and condensing it to chunks before flinging it at the two. The first two bits were dodged, the next few broken before they could land any hits. Zuko slashed apart a clump of cement with his sword, and grimaced at a scrape it left in his blade.

He advanced, while the agent was drawing up more ammo. One slash across his torso – Zuko heard his sword scrape on mesh armor underneath, and was grateful that it wouldn't turn into another job like Alain Baptiste – and then Zuko brought the hilt of his sword to the side of the agent's head, with a heavy, thick _dootch _of a noise. The agent went down like a sack of bricks.

"Nice one," he heard Katara from behind him.

He had no time to reply, because he had to dodge a clay fist that came for his head. It was hard to see in those stupid sunglasses, but he knew the value of a secret identity, and would protect it accordingly. "You want to be a fangirl, or are you going to help me?" Zuko answered quickly, and extended his leg to kick an earthbender in the stomach, throwing him down the stairs too, like discarded garbage.

Katara grinned and hopped down the steps in a nonchalant way; Zuko was beginning to think she really, _really _missed being the Painted Lady. Her gun came up again, and three more shots fired out from very near to Zuko, sending those irritating rings through his head. He was more used to the sound of gunfire than some of the other rebels, but it would always bother him. Even Katara had to clench her jaw to keep from biting her tongue when the explosion happened. Her bullets all caught her target, but only with the sound of metal on metal.

An earthen hand came to grab her by the head, but Katara ducked aside, forgetting that Zuko was behind her. "Look out!" she squeaked, just a little too late.

The hand thumped into Zuko's shoulder; the one still sore from that bullet he'd taken for her so many months ago, before she'd known he was the Blue Spirit. "Oof!" was all he could muster, as two swords became one in one hand, and the other went up to clutch at his shoulder. Pain exploded in his shoulder and shot down his arm and into his stomach. It stung, burnt and tingled all at once, dulled by time healing, but still painful after a shock like that. He had many words in his head to shout, but none would come out past the involuntary way his teeth became glued to one another, and he struggled to hold his tongue, lest he bite it.

"Sorry!" Katara glanced back at him to see if he was okay – even though he clearly wasn't – and then whipped her head around, ponytail smacking her cheek as she did so, to fire another shot, incapacitating one last enemy by shooting his leg out from under him. That one sounded like it had broken his shinbone. Katara winced, and even considered apologizing to the agent too. "Shit," she murmured, as the last of the Dai Li went reeling back down the steps.

The whole group of the broken agents groaned and threatened in Chinese. Neither of the two rebels spoke Chinese, and thus, didn't hear the insults spat their way.

Katara went to Zuko's aid, her brows tilting immediately. The gun was away in a flash, and her hands were going up to check on his shoulder, where his hand was clenched over it. Blue eyes flickered to his gold ones through two pairs of sunglasses, and he smiled weakly. "Oh, shit, I'm so sorry, I should've-,"

"Don't," he dusted his shoulder off, and gave a shallow breath of pain, forcing a little smile. "I'm fine. Just a little …" he tried to find a word for it, "sore," he finished calmly. "I wouldn't have done any different," he assured her.

Katara still made a face. "Sorry," she repeated glumly, the dulled sounds of gunfire and groaning behind that door echoing in the hallway.

Zuko rolled his eyes, moved to put his swords away, and followed her back to the door they were supposed to be guarding – it thumped again, as though someone had been thrown into it. "We'd should probably go help the others," he stated assertively, the end of his left sword only touching the sheath on his back before his muscles shifted to accommodate his change of plan.

Katara didn't protest, and the two went for the door. Zuko tugged it open, and the muffled shouts and groans became louder and clearer. It was darker inside than in the hallway, and it took a moment for their eyes to adjust. They narrowly avoided getting their heads smashed open by a set of Dai Li fists careening their way, by both ducking away from one another, to the floor.

Things were a lot worse up here than they had been in the lobby; nine had become nineteen, and there had to be more on the way. In the corner of her vision, Katara could see the black stain of blood in the dark, running down the skin of one of the rebels. Her eyes flickered around in the dark, searching for her friends. She could see two injured, and she saw Aang and Jet fighting back-to-back, holding Dai Li away as best they could, and Zuko quickly going to their aid. The two remaining airbenders, the swordfighters and the remaining shooter were scattered throughout the darkness; she could see their silhouettes over the chest-height sorting units spaced from one end of the floor to another.

Katara could see papers strewn on the floor – some stained with blood – and she could see that Aang was holding some folders to his chest as he fought one-handed. She'd have seen more if a voice didn't jerk her to life from behind. It was a terribly, horrifyingly familiar voice, and it tore at the edges of her consciousness as though it wanted to drive her to insanity.

"_What are you waiting for?"_ the voice rasped sadistically, and she heard the crackle of fire, just as an orange light flared up behind her. There was a grin behind those words; she knew it. How could someone sound like that and _not _be grinning? It was just like the man in black; the man who'd attacked Katara in her kitchen, and yet it was also like Zuko in a way that made every part of Katara chill and freeze and lock up in confusion and terror.

Katara spun and moved away as quickly and efficiently as she could while her nerves clenched, eyes widening behind sunglasses she immediately felt the urge to remove. '_No. No, no, no, __**no.' **_She took one step back, and another, and then finally focused through her panic to fix her eyes on the bright orange fire that greeted her like a leering wolf, leaping to tear flesh from bone. Everything around her ceased to be, and all she saw was fire, and _Aidan, _and one horrifyingly sinister _grin._

Gray-green eyes of incomparable cruelty glimmered at her, ready to swallow her up. She drowned and burnt and was torn to shreds in his gaze; that imprisoning _stare _he sent her way, as though looks could kill with prejudice. The corners of his mouth were etched up into his cheeks, his teeth bared with sharp canines that made the Marina girl fear for her life; it looked as though he could slice open her arteries and veins and flesh with just his teeth. His hair was wild and that small, silver piercing he'd had in his lip was gone – in its place was an ugly scar that misshaped his lower lip somewhat.

Aidan took a stiff, sickening, _clicking, _shuffling step closer. It sounded as bad as it looked. It was as though his knees had been locked in position with cement, and he walked only with the movements of his hips and ankles. The knee he moved made a rock-like _clack _of a noise, and then seemed to almost _whine._ Katara shuddered. Gray-green eyes – the ones Katara was drowning in – were narrowed with the way his cheeks plumped at his grin.

And then there was the _fire _in his hand, the hand poised _just so, _so that he could force it straight through Katara's heart if he so desired. She had wanted to move further away, and faster too, but now she was as stiff as his knees, and she could do nothing to stop it. The fire was orange, red, with flickers of a reluctant yellow, and it hovered above his palm as though he were making it float there, only so he could _show them. _So he could _show them _what he could _do. _He was a firebender. That was the logical explanation, of course, as strange as it may have been to call it so. But to Katara, there was no logic in that moment; how could there be? Aidan had disappeared _weeks _ago.

But then again, she supposed it _should _have made sense. She'd concluded on the day the toxin had exploded at school that Aidan had been helping the Dai Li, and now … now it had just come full-circle. Here he stood in Dai Li colors – not the traditional robes, but in what looked like ancient training attire of deep, dark forest green – ready to attack those who opposed the Dai Li party. There was only one logical deduction to make; that he had been in on it the whole damn time, and she had foolishly believed she could change him. Tears stung the corners of Katara's eyes; why, she didn't know. Why should she care? Why the hell should she care?

Because he had sobbed into her, like a wounded animal? Because he had made sure she escaped the aftermath of the explosion? Because he had _really, __**really **_seemed like a hurt little boy who wanted his mother to love him? Why? Why on earth should any of that be her concern? He had hurt Zuko, the man she loved, and he had hurt her too, now. But she wasn't angry. Just sad. Sad and hurt.

His fire burnt her arm as she moved out of the way – Katara had expected physical pain to accompany the pain in her chest, and so she wasn't surprised. Aidan was laughing, madly, in a way Katara hadn't heard before, but Zuko had. Tears were spilling down her cheeks now, and she couldn't stop them. She could only stay as silent as possible, and hope he didn't recognize her through her disguise. Somewhere behind her, Zuko had fallen deathly silent, as though his throat had been pulled out by merciless claws, and his heart was falling through the floor as he stared.

Zuko was caught between wanting to scream sense at whatever sanity was left in his ex-best-friend, and wanting to slash him to pieces for the way Katara was clutching her arm to her middle and huddling into a ball. Aidan had made his days in the loony bin bearable; he had been his guide, and his leader. They had been friends, and Aidan knew more about his dark side than anyone – he hoped – ever would. There had been a time he'd thought he knew Aidan's dark side too. They had been content to sit in the shadows together. But now … now Katara was curled up in pain, and fire was being thrown this way and that, and the barrage of earth was flying around, and this … _this _was what you called 'temporary insanity'.

The feral _roar_ that escaped from Zuko's lungs was rage, and anger and _hate_.

The way his blade came down in a harsh, _merciless_ slash was pain, suffering and _betrayal_.

The hand that went out to _claw_ for Aidan's throat was **revenge**.

But nothing became of these raw emotions that materialized in the form of actions. His hand, which had had every intention of tearing out Aidan's Adam's apple, went reeling back, just as he did, as his footing shifted beneath him. Jet let out a strangled scream from afar, and there was a sickening thud against the floor. Zuko had completely forgotten there were earthbenders around; he had been lost, in a dark place. He had thought about the fortuneteller

_(death is coming)_

in the moment his blade swung and missed

_(but not for you)_

its target. He had desperately hoped that he would deliver death with one precise slash through Aidan's flesh and bone.

He was falling backward, and the Dai Li were moving away, shouting in Chinese. The smell of blood filled Zuko's senses, and he suddenly just wanted the night to end. In some corner of his mind, he wanted it _all _to end, but that was a concept he quickly threw away. The building was shaking, and Katara was finally getting up, and there was brief relief that she was okay, and then the floor under them groaned and creaked and threatened to give way. Zuko didn't know whether to be worried or what, but he forced himself to shaking legs – he didn't know why he was shaking, but he was – to stand against whatever he had to.

He'd dealt with worse. That was what he reminded himself of.

It was so different to the night Alain Baptiste had died at his blade; this time he had gone in with people to protect, with the other rebels, and Katara, Aang and Jet. And things had never been worse. It was like some horrible nightmare, and he couldn't wake up. Zuko wondered if he was asleep again. Katara appeared at his side, her arm still clutched to her torso, and grabbed his arm for support, and he knew he was awake. Katara quickly left his side to go to the others.

"Come on! The building's coming down!" she insisted, lifting and directing the others, who had all fallen to a shell-shocked kind of horror. She didn't know what the damage was yet.

Aang heaved Jet up from the ground, and there was just _so much blood._ Katara's stomach lurched, and her face contorted. She instructed Zuko to help Aang move the freedom fighter, and threw open the door into the hallway. She shouted at them to get a move on, and they followed in a catatonic efficiency that was part instinct and part logic, but no feeling. The rebels moved, helping each other along as best they could, like a group of injured animals.

Injured or not, Katara led them to safety, down the stairwell, out the lobby, and into the street. If he hadn't been numb, he'd have been proud. There was a hummer stopped in front of the building when they came out, and Pipsqueak leant out, his voice booming over the shuddering supports of the structure they'd just escaped. **"IN! IN! IN!"** he cried out desperately, his voice definitely wavering slightly at the sight of Jet, and the blood – by hell, there was so fucking _much _of it!

They piled in. Jet was already unconscious, and the others soon followed suit. Katara leant forward in her seat and held her head in her hands, staring down at the carpet between her feet, ignoring the pain in her right arm, and her gun forgotten long ago. Zuko was still breathing hard, and his eyes were still staring into the middle-distance, but his hand found its way to Katara's back, his thumb brushing over it through the fabric of her shirt. Smellerbee was already in the car, but she was leaning out the window.

There was a shout from behind. _**"I'll hold them off for as long as I can!" **_and nobody thought anything of it at the time. If they'd been even partially conscious, they'd have reasoned with themselves that _that wasn't Longshot, _but even simplicities like that were beyond them. As soon as the initial shock passed, a few minutes screaming down the road, they were packing wounds and wrapping fractures and wishing to god they hadn't come out tonight.

* * *

><p>Katara was usually smarter than to take out her aggression on inanimate objects, but when they finally set up camp in a ruined, run-down, abandoned, had-been bar, she threw the first few tables and chairs to the edges of the room, under the guise that she was 'clearing the way' for them to bring Jet through. The second chair she threw snapped right off its legs against the chair rail on the wall.<p>

Aang shot her a look, as Pipsqueak carried Jet through the shady bar area. _'Cool it, Katara,' _his eyes seemed to say, and Katara scowled at him. Maybe Aang couldn't understand; Aang hadn't been there when she'd talked Aidan down. He had run out on the world a thousand years ago, when the Dai Li were new, so what did he know about responsibility, anyway? A surge of guilt bolted through the waterbender. She tried to blame it on the devil that lived on her shoulder, but it was hard, considering she hadn't heard from it in so long.

There was a sharp sting that tingled from her shoulder to her mid-forearm, but she was trying her best to ignore it. There was a clay hand protruding from Jet's chest, and it looked like he would die. Katara wondered if it would be her fault. She couldn't believe how fast – how blindingly and terribly _fast _everything had tumbled downhill. She hadn't even noticed Jet getting hurt, and she hadn't heard Aidan sneaking up behind her. Had she just lost her edge? Had her senses just completely dulled from weeks of inactivity? She should have noticed something; anything. Katara had gone in with people, comrades, perhaps even subordinates in a sense. And if nothing else, she had let them down.

Blue eyes flickered up to look around. She wanted to be sharper, and more alert to the things going on around her now. It had been chaos - the fight just minutes ago - and she had decided she couldn't _do _chaos. It slowed her reaction time and put people at risk, and she didn't want to have to blame herself for that happening again. The bar area of this deserted place was dusty, and somewhat smashed up. It looked as though the Dai Li had personally run the owners out of the place. Katara wondered if that meant they had surveillance here. It was too late to hide her identity again now – she'd taken off the sunglasses and scarf, and she didn't care to put them back on. She wondered if she'd have seen better without them; if she'd have been able to react sooner – if she'd just have _handled the situation _better. There was an old piano at one end of the bar area, with a dusty jar, still littered with change atop it. The chairs and tables – the ones Katara had yet to attack – still had empty and half-empty glasses atop them.

Smellerbee, Pipsqueak, and now the Duke, who had just arrived, were taking Jet to the door just behind the bar. "There's gotta be some medical supplies back there," Smellerbee reasoned at a low rasp, more to herself than to anyone else, and directed the others in that direction.

Looking for something to occupy herself, Katara gave a sigh and followed after them. "I'll help," she stated plainly as she moved after them.

Smellerbee quickly turned on her heel and raised a hand to block Katara's path, just as the taller girl got near enough for the hand to be held between they faces. "We've got this," she snapped sharply, with a kind of irritation in her voice that nobody could really place. Aang and Zuko both exchanged glances of confusion at Smellerbee's sudden possessiveness. Zuko had always suspected Smellerbee to have a crush on Jet, but surely any help offered should have been appreciated, right? Jet could have been _dying. _Mayhap he was already dead.

Katara blinked at Smellerbee for a moment, looking ready to protest, but then seemed to deflate with a sigh. She turned and grabbed a seat at the bar. "Aang. Check the bar for something to drink," she called over her shoulder, her elbows hitting the wood bar surface with a quiet little thump.

Pipsqueak and Smellerbee hauled Jet through the door, and disappeared, with the Duke trotting after them, carrying the case Smellerbee had had with her since the car. Through the fogged glass in the upper half of the door, they saw lights flicked on, and heard Smellerbee barking orders at the Duke. It looked like Pipsqueak was laying Jet down on something. It reminded Zuko of the night Lu Ten and Kelly had operated on Katara's bullet wound in his uncle's living room, and subsequently made his stomach turn. He turned his eyes to Katara, who was sitting at the bar, now staring over her shoulder at Aang, expectant. Most of Katara's right sleeve was burnt off, but some bits remained, stuck to her burnt skin. Zuko winced, and got up, moving toward her.

Katara turned in her seat to look at him, a nervous kind of anxiety written on her features. "You know who it was, don't you?" she murmured, trying not to let anyone else hear, and succeeding, somewhat. Her voice was somewhere between trying to be strong and trying to seek comfort, and it made Zuko want to wrap her up in his arms, and never let go.

Zuko nodded mildly, his good brow furrowed, and his scarred one doing something of the sort. "Yeah. I do," he agreed, and his hands went to the bottom of his shirt, his mind already made up on what he planned to do. The shirt came off over his head, and a squeak escaped from Katara's mouth. He'd have smirked, but it was beyond him right now. When the black, long-sleeved shirt was held in one of his hands, he brought the other to it and tore at the hem, until it was coming away in one long strip.

Katara seemed to understand what he was doing, and turned her right shoulder out to show him her burn. There was a sour kind of expression on his face, and she knew he was wondering why she wasn't howling in pain, like she should have been. It did hurt, but she had other things on her mind. The tentative brush of Zuko's thumb on her unmarred skin, just above where the burn started, sent a shiver of relief through her, and her shoulders slumped a little more, with a heavy, shaky sigh. She was thankful for him, just to be close to her now. With him nearby, she didn't feel like she had to hold _everything _up. She could be weak, and hold onto someone else, if she had to.

_"You don't have to be okay all the time, Katara."_

Zuko wrapped her arm as carefully as he could, from her shoulder to her forearm, and then breathed a sigh of his own. "I have something for burns, at home," he reminded her, his golden eyes still pointed down at her arm, as he scrutinized his own handiwork. He remembered telling Katara to _stay away from Aidan. _He had had good reason for it, he concluded, in hindsight. Aidan had hurt Katara, and he may have missed his chance to hit back, but he'd make Aidan regret it, no matter what. Zuko lowered his voice to a whisper. "I'm sorry."

Katara's left hand came up and if he'd been wearing a shirt now, would have caught it and clenched on it. Instead, it came up and flattened over where his heart lived. She didn't meet his eyes, but a tiny, almost invisible smile wriggled its way to her face. She felt his heart beating under her palm, and somehow, that made everything a little more _okay._

Aang cleared his throat awkwardly, awakening them to the fact that he was still there. Zuko turned and blinked, surprised, and Katara looked past Zuko to Aang, and the both of them blushed a faint pink that made Aang both happy and jealous. There was something about that 'oops, we've been caught' look that made him think of Toph, and it made the dulling pain of her disappearance – death – spring to life again. "Looks like we'll be staying here tonight. The Dai Li are probably patrolling the streets now looking for rebels slinking back to their houses. We'd best set up camp here," he suggested carefully.

Zuko nodded, and remembered Katara saying something about checking the bar for drinks. The idea of drinking was especially appealing right now. He gave Katara a light pat on her good shoulder, before moving around the bar and ducking into the lower cabinets for something to drown their sorrows in. The doors swung open, and he peered through the dingy light of the street outside to see what the options were.

"What is there?" Katara asked from her stool at the bar.

Zuko made a face. "No whiskey, and no rum. There's gin, I guess, and beer. Not much else."

"What about those behind you?" Aang suggested, in a voice both calm and smug. A groan from nearby caused him to look and see one of the other rebels finally waking up, groggily rubbing at they faces and finding dried blood there. Aang hopped off his seat on the table and outstretched a hand to help the boy up.

Zuko stood up and turned around, finally seeing the glass display cabinet at the back of the bar, stock up with the 'special reserve' bottles you usually saw at good bars. He looked back to Aang, caught a smirk and returned it. "Or the obvious answer … which I somehow managed to miss," he quickly added awkwardly, and reached up to steady the cabinet while he forced open the doors; the last thing he wanted was for it to come down and empty its expensive bottles out onto the floor.

Aang seemed to be thinking something dry and witty about Zuko being distracted due to his little _moment _with Katara, and Zuko wondered if Aang had been talking to Jet regarding _distractions _before … before Jet had gone down. A frown found its way to Zuko's face again. He and Jet weren't close the way he and say, Sokka or Aang, were, but they had a mutual respect at the very least. And in the end of the day, Zuko knew Jet had the best intent at heart, even if he was a little selfish or impulsive sometimes – but hey, Zuko knew he himself had certain flaws too. He couldn't begrudge someone their little quirks.

He didn't even know how it had happened; he'd been helping Aang up off the floor, after the Avatar had been knocked down, and in the blink of an eye, Jet had just made this sickening gagging noise, as though he'd been choking on his own tongue, and then the freedom fighter had fallen, first to his knees, with wide eyes, and then finally forward, onto his face. Zuko had been convinced Jet was dead in that moment.

Zuko suddenly felt the urge to drink a little stronger. He pulled open the cabinet doors and drew out three bottles of expensive wine. Two red ones and a white one. He put them out on the bar, between him and Katara, and then turned to get some glasses. Aang and the now waking rebels approached the bar. Zuko poured into their glasses and slid them across the smooth wood.

There was no toast, just a meaningful glance between them all, before they each took their first sips, and fell into silence.

It was something between a respectful silence and a solemn one. It was mourning, grave and serious.

Aang had ended up strolling across the bar to the piano when the others jumped out of their silent haze, to hear the little 'plink' of a drawn-out E-key on it. Zuko looked over to see Aang standing over the keys with a sad, thoughtful little smile on his face – probably the first one on the Avatar's face in a while. Katara and the other rebels turned on their stools to look at the airbending master. Aang spaced his right fingers along the first chord of Billy Joel's 'Piano Man'. His fingers crawled up the little accompaniment flare, melodic and sad. He stopped. A sigh escaped and he shook his head, turning and pulling up a chair.

"You play?" Zuko spoke up, lifting his glass to his mouth again; the temperature the wines had been at in the cupboard were too cold for the red to be nice, and too warm for the white to be enjoyed, but the sting of the alcohol was a numbing effect on the nights tragedies, and the sounds of Smellerbee's voice, muffled by the door between them and Jet.

Aang looked back to the others and smiled wanly. "Not like she used to," he replied, and nobody asked the question that sprang to their lips.

He played that chord again, and the accompaniment … and the next chord. And then he was playing.

"_It's nine o' clock on a Saturday. The regular crowd shuffles in." _He sang in a low voice, more to himself than to the bar, and the piano sang too, just as solemn and grave and mourning as everyone else in the bar.

"_There's an old man sitting next to me, making love to his tonic and gin." _Aang's voice grew louder, and he was determined to sing this song, even if it killed him. Katara smiled wearily, understanding this. She remembered what this song meant to him, and what it meant to him and Toph. It was _their _song. _"He says 'son, can you play me a memory, I'm not really sure how it goes, but it's sad and it's sweet, and I knew it complete, when I wore a younger man's clothes'."_

Aang played between the next lyrics, unsure if he could get through them without having to stop. Katara's voice came over the music, and she wasn't a fantastic singer, but it was a song nobody to mess up. It was a song that sounded beautiful and sad and tragic on its own merits. It was a work of art, in and of itself. She sang no lyrics, but followed the simple barroom 'la-la-dee-da' of the song, and began to sway on her bar stool.

Aang smiled, and played, and felt his eyes stinging. _"Sing us a song, you're the piano man," _he continued, the piano crying for him, _"Sing us a song tonight. Well, we're all in the mood for a melody, and you've got us feeling alright."_

Aang played, and stalled for a moment, unsure of the next words to the song; it had been so long since he'd heard it. He continued with the music, thinking fast. _John at the bar … is …_

Zuko stepped in before Aang could take this as an excuse to stop playing; he was in the mood for a melody, if you pardoned the irony. His voice was a rasp, even in song. _"Now, John at the bar is a friend of mine," _he smiled solemnly, and quite fittingly lifted one of the red bottles to pour into his own glass again, and then filled Katara's, _"He gets me my drinks for free. And he's quick with a joke, or a light up your smoke, but there's someplace that he'd rather be," _he glanced across the dim, unlit bar to where Aang was sat at the piano, gray eyes pointed toward the bar. Katara had half expected Zuko to be too nervous to sing – according to Sokka, real men didn't sing – but Zuko's voice made her smile, no matter what the context.

The other rebels were quick to put the next lyrics into practice. _"He says, Bill, I believe this is killing me, as the smile ran away from his face; well, I'm sure that I could be a movie star, if I could get out of this place," _and Aang was playing beautifully, and they all jumped in, swaying on their stools, their voices nothing like merriness, or even amicability, just understanding, and shared grief. None of them would ever forget this night, no matter what happened.

_So, sing us a song, you're the piano man,_

_Sing us a song tonight._

_Well, we're all in the mood for a melody,_

_And you've got us feeling alright._

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So there it is. It's not what I usually write, there's generally a lot more love and diversity, and a lot shorter scenes, but this was a long night, for them and for me. Seriously. I feel really bad for Aang; he loves Toph to bits. I can only imagine what he feels like, wondering if she's dead, even though she came to help them and he doesn't know it.**

**Anyway, I'm rambling. What inspired me to actually finish this chapter was that emletish finally updated the wonderfully witty 'Not Stalking Zuko'. I've known for a few days I wanted to do a 'Piano Man' thing, but I needed to clear up the other stuff. I'll admit the whole chapter is still pretty messy, but I guess that adds to its chaotic overtone. Please tell me if I'm straying too far from my regular writing style; I keep feeling like it's not the way I used to write. But I didn't want to cut the raid short, because it needed elaboration … just tell me!**

**YAY FOR AIDAN. OMGWTFBLARFGRARGH YEEEESSSS! Aidan back to kill and pillage and all that jazzy fun stuff :'D So happy! I love him as a firebender, too. He's so fun to write. Hope I did him justice.**

**Also … LE KORRA! MY GAWD, LE KORRA! What can I say about Korra? There are no words. I'm just irritated with now having seen episodes one and two, and having to wait until April 28th to see episode 3 -.- Curse my lack of self control. I totally nergasmed when I saw the Makorra kiss on the Path To Korra video on Youtube. I thank Youtube for it's new speed option; it let me slow it down to 0.5x speed so I could see it through that blink-and-you'll-miss-it flashy thing they do.**

**Lyrics are from Billy Joel's hauntingly beautiful 'Piano Man'.**

**Review! Please! I beg of you!**


	12. Looking For The Answers

Smellerbee sat in the hospital, staring at the blood on her hands. It had dried into brownish lines in the creases of her palm, and buried itself under her fingernails, and stained her skin a horrid shade of pink that reminded her of Jet's heaving chest. She supposed she could pull her legs up onto the waiting room chair, wrap her arms around them and proceed to sob like an idiot, but she thought better of it. There were more important things to deal with. Yes, it was a tragedy, but Jet was breathing. And that was a start, right?

No. No, because he would probably never wake up, and that was as good as dead.

Smellerbee wondered if Jet would rather have died than lived on a machine, and then she cursed herself. Why the heck was she getting all deep and thoughtful now? She'd never been like this before; and she had reason to have been. Her life had never really been easy, but she'd always found a way to ignore it and get on with stuff. And now she was sitting here _pondering. _She stuck her tongue out at the thought. Smellerbee would die before she went all touchy-feely like that Marina girl.

Seriously; what was _with _that chick? I mean, there were feelings and there were feelings, but that girl just had _too many _of them! She was giggly, and serious, and grumpy, and then she was annoying, and coy, and ridiculously _shy _when it came to boys (that one was really irritating). The girl went through more mood swings than a pregnant woman on antidepressants, mescaline, ecstasy and hormone replacement pills - and Smellerbee regretted to be able say she had _seen _such a thing. Except her mother hadn't been pregnant. If she had said that aloud, she'd be looking around to be sure nobody had heard.

But in all honesty, it was a little jarring - all this with Jet. He _never _got hurt, at least not seriously. He was always the _okay _one. Then again, Smellerbee mused, they were all pretty _okay. _Not by any kind of reason or logic, they just always managed to cope.

Smellerbee fidgeted in her seat for a moment, and then lifted a hand to smack herself on the forehead. Stupid weird feelings. This was all Longshot's fault; he seemed to kickstart a lot of touchy-feeliness in her lately. It was just his way to sit and think deep thoughts and stare into space like he was Einstein inside his own head, not letting anyone in, and he made Smellerbee have to think deep thoughts just to figure out what the hell he was thinking!

Why couldn't he talk like regular guys? That wouldn't drive her nearly as crazy as he did now. Even though she did kind of like being the one who understood him the best. Well … not _understand _understand, but she could convey to others what he wanted to say, so she was kind of like …

"Kind of stupid!" Smellerbee cursed under her breath, irritated with all this ponderous, thoughtful … mush! Ugh! Why was she acting like this when Jet was, for all intents and purposes, in a coma? She could've picked a better time to pine over her idiotic, stupid, silent, pondery crush of a kind-of best friend … thing … "Shit," she hung her head, and her shoulders jumped with a humorless kind of laugh.

Smellerbee heard footsteps coming closer to her; two people. She looked up and saw Longshot and Bei Fong coming at an ambling pace, Longshot with a limp he was trying to hide, and the blind girl with a stiffness to the swing of her arms that Smellerbee found suspicious. The female freedom fighter sat up in her seat and shot a look in the direction of the one who would notice it.

"It safe for you to come out like this?" Smellerbee asked quietly, her voice a low rasp.

Toph nodded and sat down on Smellerbee's left hand side, rolling one shoulder to loosen it up. Longshot sat down on a seat across from them, leaning forward intently. The blind earthbender stared forward sightlessly, one foot tapping the floor, just once, and taking in the information the vibration fed back. "So?" Toph blinked slowly, biting off the yawn at the back of her throat, "How's Jet, then?"

"Alive. Barely."

Toph took a while to answer, seeming to think this over. "Huh," she exhaled, and then grimaced. "What happened?"

Smellerbee shook her head. "Not really sure - I wasn't there. Things just … went downhill."

Toph laughed dryly. "Yeah," she murmured. "They do that. What about the others? They okay?" she asked tentatively, not wanting to sound too concerned.

"For the most part. Marina got a pretty bad burn, but Scorsese took her to his house to fix it up - apparently he has some special burn salve stuff, for all the use he put it to," she scoffed darkly, and she caught the slightest of apprehensive scrunches in Toph's features. "Tyson's fine, though. Since that's what you really wanted to know," she finished, not even looking up at the earthbender.

She expected Toph to get all defensive, but instead she smiled; Smellerbee didn't see it, but sensed it in her words. "Good," she rolled her shoulder again, and winced slightly, "I still haven't gotten my chance to beat him."

"Even though you haven't actually gone about doing it," Smellerbee pointed out, leaning back in her seat.

Toph paused, scowled and sat back too. "I'll get around to it."

"Mm-hmm."

* * *

><p>"Are you done yet?" Katara arched a brow at Zuko, who was still fussing over her arm where they sat in his room. He'd spent the last few minutes basically <em>basting <em>her arm in his special burn-salve, which now Katara realized smelled really nice, but that was beside the point, and now he was wrapping it up again, even though it probably didn't need wrapping. Katara was actually under the impression that wrapping it was a bad idea; she thought fresh air might be good for a burn. Zuko vehemently disagreed, of course, and he knew best.

Zuko tied off the bandaging at her forearm and nodded affirmatively. His makeshift wrapping earlier in the night was in the bin somewhere. "Done," he announced calmly, from his spot knelt on the floor in front of her, where she sat on the bed, leant forward with her injured right arm extended for him. He watched as she slowly moved her arm back to her side, careful not to move too quickly, and Zuko couldn't help but frown. "It'll get better, but it's going to hurt for a while. It might scar, just a little bit."

Katara raised a hand and rubbed her brow, looking up to meet his gaze. "It's okay. It could've been worse, right?" she tried an optimistic smile on, but it played out rather weakly on her face. Zuko thought she looked tired, and it quickly brought out the exhaustion in his own muscles.

"Right," Zuko agreed, his shoulders slumping. He set out to step toward the bed, but halfway into the step, changed his mind so he fell into it, face-first. He heard Katara laughing, muffled through where the sheets climbed up around his ears. His arms spread on it and he meant to say something funny to lighten the mood, but he could do nothing but take in the tingling sensation that simply _relaxing _sent across his body. What came out was a drawn out, "Ahhh."

Katara placed a hand on his back, sending another tingle of happiness through him. "Sleepy?" she murmured endearingly with another yawn, and then chuckled, once. "Ooph; I could hit the sack myself," and she suddenly became aware of how wonderfully _soft _the bed was under her, half considering falling back onto it.

Zuko stayed plastered to his bed for a moment, before groaning and rolling himself onto his back. "Once I fall asleep, I'll never be able to wake up," he stated rather plainly. "Even if I wanted to."

"Sounds like fun," the corners of Katara's mouth tilted up. "I might join you," she glanced to the bed and really, _really _considered it. Oh, how it would feel to just … lean back … and …

Zuko found himself smiling slightly. "Why don't you stay?" he suggested mildly. "It's late to go home now, and I'm going to need someone to peel my ass out of bed tomorrow."

Katara blinked at him, taking in information. The bed was calling her, in the back of her head. She made a little whine of protest, as though arguing with herself, and then groaned aloud, before dropping back to the bed. A similar 'ahhhh' noise escaped her. "Sure," she answered nonchalantly, shutting her eyes slowly. "I'm staying here."

Zuko's smile grew a little wider, and he rolled back toward her, ready to tell her to get up so he could pull back the sheets, but then his mind crossed the subject of Aidan, and the smile dropped. Aidan had always been one to lead and destroy. It just wasn't fitting with his character to join someone else's army and fight _for _them. In reality, it had been only hours ago, but it felt like days had passed with how crazy the whole thing had turned out. Zuko reached out and tentatively laid his palm on Katara's wrapped elbow. He did it slowly enough that it didn't hurt her; he knew just how painful it had to be. His brows came down and he averted his eyes.

Katara caught the change in his demeanor and propped herself on her elbows. "What's wrong?" she asked groggily.

Zuko shook his head and exhaled. "Aidan," he answered simply. Of course, the first thing that came to heart at the thought was anger; he wanted to _fucking rip off _Aidan'shead_, _but he found himself turned around thinking about it. His thumb ran over the bandaging on Katara's elbow, smoothly and softly.

Katara looked at him for a moment, and then looked away, thoughtful. "Yeah," she agreed solemnly, dropping back to the bed. "Asshole," she murmured irritably, and then felt rather like a bitch for it. But why should she? He'd completely betrayed her - either that or he was just a huge liar, getting her to open her arms to him and then (literally) burn her!

Zuko sat up, carefully moving his hand from Katara's arm to be sure he didn't nudge it or hurt it in any way, shape or form. He supposed he'd better stop worrying about it. He glanced back at her as he reached down and tugged off his socks, tossing them across the room in little black balls. "Come on," he spoke up. "It's getting late."

Katara nodded and sat up too, tugging off her own socks - their shoes were somewhere by Zuko's bedroom door. She glanced down at her tight shirt and grimaced, forcing herself to get up from her seat. "Hey, do you have like, an outgrown t-shirt, or something?" she drew up her shoulders to stretch them.

Zuko strolled over to his drawer unit and opened the second-to-top drawer, pulling out a plain, loose red t-shirt of his. He balled it up and tossed it to her. "That should do the trick. Bathroom's just through-," Zuko glanced back to her, to see her quickly shedding her shirt to put on the one he'd given her. He gave a light chuckle, looking back to the drawer unit, closing the drawer and opening the one under it, to find a pair of tracksuit trousers that would do for pajamas.

He didn't usually wear pajamas - he tended to just pull off his jeans and hop into bed in his underwear and a t-shirt to save trouble - but he supposed that would be asking for trouble with Katara here. Zuko quickly switched from his jeans to his pajama trousers - since Katara didn't mind changing with him in the room, why should he? - and them turned to the bed, to see Katara climbing in already, having shed her jeans as well, wearing only her underwear and his shirt. Zuko beamed, despite the night's events.

It wasn't like they hadn't had sleepovers before, of course. Katara had spent more time in his bed, ironically, than even Mai. But not since their relationship had become romantic. Admittedly, they had spent nights together in her bed, but Zuko couldn't help but feel happy at seeing her in _his. _It was possessive and random, but it still made him smile.

Katara scooted over so she wasn't on his side of the bed, already knowing which one it was, and then rolled onto her side to face him. Before she could tell him to get his ass in bed with her, Zuko was already on it, climbing in next to her and reaching for the lamp on the bedside table. The light went off, the room went dark, and the only thing Zuko could see for a moment was the numbers on the digital alarm clock beside the lamp. Just past three in the morning.

Oh well. Zuko had gone to sleep later than this before, and still been up with the sun.

Katara lay on her left side, with her injured arm laid over her waist, her eyes fixed on him in the dark. Zuko could tell, just by the silence she employed, and so he rolled onto his back and raised his arm for her to get under it. Happy with this, Katara snuggled herself into him and the two proceeded to drop off like pebbles into water.

* * *

><p>When Zuko's alarm went off the next morning, he almost missed that overly cheery radio announcer that had screamed him out of bed every morning for the last three years. What he woke up to was instead the dull tones of a weather announcement in Chinese, or something. He didn't really need to listen to it; he could see by the window that it was a sunny day and it might occasionally rain later on, judging by the scattered clouds at the corners of the sky.<p>

He was extremely tired - to the point that he closed his eyes again and considered going back to sleep, which was very unlike him. He felt a dull hangover at the center of his head, but it was nothing he hadn't ignored in the past. He lay in consciousness with his eyes closed for a moment before he blinked them open and realized with a bit of surprise that he had had no nightmares last night. A grin played on his face. All that trudging along on crack pills had been for nothing, he told himself in a scolding manner. _'I am a fucking idiot and I will listen to Katara more often' _he vowed mentally.

His morning was made considerably better by the aforementioned being snuggled up to him, one leg draped over both of his and her injured arm draped over his chest, hand holding onto the loose bit of cloth between the sleeve and body of his shirt. "Oh, shit, can we sleep a little longer?" she grumbled, scooting up a little more to him until her forehead was against his cheek. She tensed slightly, seeming to realize her own hangover.

Zuko rolled his head aside to kiss her on the forehead. "Morning," he whispered tenderly, and made his brain wake up and become aware of the hand he had around her back so he could trace circles on it with his palm.

Katara half chuckled and half whimpered in protest. "Don't do that, you're making me tired," she tilted her head up and found the nearest point of his face - his chin - and put a kiss there. She propped her head onto his shoulder, and eventually, a grin found its way to her face too.

And then dropped, almost the exact same moment reality flooded Zuko's mind. Aidan. Jet. Toph.

Zuko hated how you woke up having forgotten the terrible shit from the days before, only for it to whack you in the face at the breakfast table. Katara's grip on him tightened a little bit. It comforted them both. "We'd better go to school," Zuko swallowed, staring dully at the ceiling, and still tracing those circles on her back.

Katara slowly slid her injured arm back to her own body, to be sure she didn't hurt it. She almost wanted to say 'oh, Sokka will have brought my uniform to school for me' and then she remembered that Sokka was gone too. Katara brows came together and she almost wanted to cry. What came out was the kind of whimper that coincides with a lump in the back of your throat.

Zuko kissed her forehead again, and squeezed her closer to him.

* * *

><p>"<em>Dear Zuko and Katara. <em>

"_Sokka seems to think you are having a steamy affair now that he's not there to keep an eye on you. I guess I'm writing to make sure he doesn't. We miss you, and want to know what's going on. How are things going? The Cookie is kicking now, and it's waking me up at night, but I don't mind. Sokka put the crib back together, even though we both doubt we'll be here for the birth._

"_I think he just feels better with the crib already put together. Prepared. I can't blame him; nobody was prepared for the Dai Li taking over._

"_Sokka wanted me to ask if you know anything about Toph yet. I had a whole bunch of things to ask you, but most of them have gone out of my mind now._

"_Write back soon. Lots of love, Suki."_

There was another letter that had been sent with it - from Sokka to Hakoda - that Katara intended to deliver straight after school. For now, Katara settled herself with this letter. She thought of hiding it in her locker, but knew that if the Dai Li searched it, they'd have solid proof she'd at the very least helped hide Sokka and Suki. And Zuko's name was on the letter too.

Zuko, of course, was standing beside her, having handed her the letter. The messenger bird had delivered the letters to his uncle's house, and Zuko had dropped by on his bike that morning to pick them up. He'd already read the letter, it having been partially addressed to him. He took in the mild smile on Katara's face, and it did something to lift his own mood, but there was an air of seriousness that took away from anything happy nowadays.

There were two Dai Li agents at either end of the hallway. It probably wasn't smart to read the letter in school, but they hadn't had time otherwise, and Zuko had expected Katara to want the letter as soon as possible. And she had. His secret girlfriend slipped the letter into her school bad with her left hand, careful not to move the right one too much. The uniform jacket had long sleeves, long enough to hide all her bandages and then some, but that didn't help when it came to the pain.

"What class do you have now?" Zuko asked, adjusting his own rucksack on his shoulder so he could reach in and check his new planner.

Katara glanced to the timetable she'd glued to the inside of her locker door. "Uh … Science," she answered lamely. "You?"

Zuko pulled his mouth to one side as he ran his eyes over the schedule. "Math," he replied, looking back up. "I'll see you on first break," he suggested with a brief smile, slipping his planner back into his rucksack and pulling it over his shoulder.

"Sounds like a plan. Library?" Katara tugged the strap on her shoulder bag to make it more comfortable on her bad shoulder, winced and then forced a smile. The words 'I love you' sprang to her lips, but there were people around, and agents, and she had to hold it back. Katara tried to convey it with her eyes.

Zuko smiled the same kind of smile, patted her on the shoulder and walked around her to head to his homeroom at the other end of the school. Katara couldn't help but glance back at him to check out the goods as she shut her locker and walked away. When she finally approached her homeroom class, Lydia was standing outside, her arms crossed over her chest.

Lydia looked up and stepped toward Katara upon seeing her, and Katara guessed the blonde had been waiting for her. "Stop whatever it is you lot have been doing," she hissed, one hand coming and grabbing Katara's elbow.

Katara blinked thoughtfully. They had invited Lydia to join the rebellion; she hadn't replied. "Huh? Wha- …" she paused, confused, drew a breath to ask why, before Lydia interrupted with an answer.

"You're going to get everyone killed, and I don't want that to happen," Lydia raised her other hand and poked Katara in the chest.

Katara furrowed her brow, snatched her arm out of Lydia's grasp and batted the blonde's hand away from her. She couldn't resist but roll her eyes at the Londoner. "Look, we invited you to join, you didn't want to join, you didn't, and that was all fine. But if you don't want anything to do with us, don't come around and tell us to stop. We won't stop. _We can't. _I don't know what you know about America, since you're _new _here," Katara hated sounding so bitchy, but she had to get this across, "but we don't _simply give up _here."

Lydia screwed up her face and raised a fist threateningly. "Don't try my patience, Marina. I'm dead serious here!" she seethed.

Katara narrowed her eyes. "Me. Too." She grit her teeth.

"Hey!" a voice barked across the hallway. Both girls looked and saw a Dai Li agent who had been coming up the stairwell; it didn't look like he'd caught on to anything. "Shouldn't you two be in homeroom now?" the agent held his arms behind his back and tilted his head back, gazing at then authoritatively.

The two exchanged dark glances and then turned into homeroom. Katara wondered just why Lydia was so dead-set against the rebellion; surely she wasn't so _fucking thick _as to want to live in a communist world, right? Jeez. Then again, Lydia had always been a stubborn pain in the ass, and maybe she just wanted to get into a fight with Katara so things could go back to normal. Katara kind of supposed she could understand that.

She'd give anything right now to yell at crappy old Donovan instead of staring at scary Dai Li agents.

Katara sat herself down in homeroom and dropped her chin to her palm, irritated and tense, and mildly hung-over.

* * *

><p>Poppy Bei Fong gripped the edge of the desk with shapely, delicate hands, her eyes wide and staring into an abyss of wordless shock. Her baby; her helpless little baby, attacking Dai Li agents? No. No, Toph wasn't stupid; she had to know what the Dai Li wanted. They wanted to <em>share their way of life <em>with the world; they Bei Fongs had done their utmost best to teach Toph the way their culture worked, and now … to hear that Toph would attack her own kind …

Lao kept one hand on the back of his wife's seat, the other on her shoulder, and his eyes pointed at his cousin, who stood on the other side of the desk once owned by the chief of police in Dahlia Coast. "Details," he began solemnly, "I want details. Tell me where she was seen; what she was doing to make you believe-," but he was cut off abruptly.

Captain Chang-Ming interjected reasonably and calmly. "Your daughter was first spotted nearly a week ago. It seemed she broke cover to test her capabilities against our forces; she attacked with earthbending and to avoid injuring her, our agents were forced to retreat. It would seem there is a Dai Li traitor, someone who taught her to bend, blind or not. We are working to find the traitor.

"More recently, she was seen last night distracting our agents so that rebel raiders could escape with their wounded. She and a masked archer took down nearly _sixty_ of our agents. My superiors are not happy, Lao. I cannot continue to tell my troops not to attack their opponent for fear of hurting her."

Lao grit his teeth. Toph - that ungrateful little _brat. _He didn't even have the _words _to express how angry he was. "Then next time your _troops _spot her … I want them to … to take her down," he stood straighter, removing his hands from the chair and his wife and holding them behind his back.

Poppy swirled in her seat and grasped his clothes. "No!" she exclaimed, clenching on his tunic. "Lao, no! You _can't!_" she insisted desperately. Her _baby! _Oh, Jesus, this had to be a misunderstanding! Toph was tiny and fragile and _blind! _She couldn't have been the bender who'd attacked their armies; she just **couldn't.**

Lao ignored his wife and glared into his cousin's eyes. "I want her stopped. I brought her into this world and I will have her taken out of it just as easily. Take her," Lao leant forward and jabbed a finger down on the desk. "Dead or alive," he narrowed his eyes. The noise that came from his wife was inhuman, almost a shriek, mostly an aquatic kind of moan.

Chang-Ming bowed and thumped his fist against his chest three times. "It will be done."

* * *

><p>Katara couldn't help but feel guilty at the dark glare Jin Territa gave her across her science classroom. It didn't take much to guess she would no longer be attending their rebel meetings. They were too dangerous now, according to pretty much everyone. Katara grumbled to herself as she stepped out of the class. If people weren't prepared to take risks, then they shouldn't have joined the rebellion in the first place.<p>

'_Wow, Katara. That's not dark or bitchy at all,' _drawled the sarcastic devil on Katara's left shoulder. Katara imagined that if the long-absent angel on her right were present, the two halves of her conscience would be sitting on the same bandwagon right now.

Katara tried to push off the irritation she felt, but it wasn't easy. Hopefully seeing Zuko would calm her down. It usually did. She marched herself to the library, where she spotted Zuko sitting against a desk with an Asian looking boy, slight in build, other than some muscle along his shoulders and upper arms. Zuko looked as though he was trying to end the conversation, but the boy continued eagerly.

Katara remembered Zuko taking her to get a look at him, and instantly recognized him as Corporal Su's son, Tao. She wondered if she should go in to save him from the conversation, but then wondered if Zuko didn't want her to get too close to the kid; after all, he was Dai Li, when it came down to it. They were sure of that, at least. Still, Katara mused, as she glanced around at the nearby agents, it would look weird if she lingered here for too long, waiting. She didn't want to tip them off that they knew Tao was a spy.

The Painted Lady stepped into the library and slowly approached Zuko, opening her shoulder bag to give herself a reason to steal Zuko away from Tao. Zuko seemed to tense the moment he saw her approaching, and looked as though he wanted her to get away, but it was too late.

"Katara," Zuko began awkwardly, swallowing and standing straighter as his words with Tao ceased to be.

Katara smiled at him for a moment. "Hey, you said you were going to help me with my Math homework, remember? Figured you'd be here," she spoke up calmly and innocently, giving him a back-story to stick to with Tao. He blinked at her and then smiled briefly.

Zuko nodded. "Yeah, I did," he agreed, and then looked to Tao, who he now realized was staring at Katara. Zuko's good brow came down, hard, and he cleared his throat, snapping the other boy out of his daze. "Sorry, Tao, I promised Katara I would help her with her-,"

Tao suddenly smiled - Zuko hadn't seen such a look on the boy's face - at Katara, his gray eyes brightening. "Katara Marina," he greeted, seeming to recognize her from somewhere. "Forgive me for, my, ah, forwardness … but I heard what you did with that crazy guy with the bomb. That's amazing."

Katara blinked at him for a moment and then suddenly smiled. "Oh, uh … thanks!" she chirped, raising a hand to the back of her head. "I mean, I guess someone had to do it, right?"

Tao smiled a little wider, raised a hand and pushed his glasses up his nose. "Indeed," he agreed, nodding. "You were so incredibly brave. I really must commend you," he stated formally, bowing his head slightly. Katara guessed he was being silly - Zuko guessed he had been raised to bow like this - and giggled.

Katara ruffled her hair thoughtfully. "Thanks, again. It's nice to hear someone actually knows what I did," she admitted, and felt a blush cross her cheeks.

Zuko wanted to puke, and nudged Katara irritably, his gaze turning back to Tao. "Anyway, Tao, we'd better get working," he forced a friendly look. Not only was this kid a Dai Li spy from New Jersey, but a freaking _charmer _too. And Zuko would have to be blind not to know this guy was already ... interested ... in Katara. 'I heard you did this' was most likely code for 'I asked around about you'. Either the guy really was attracted to Katara, or his superiors had told him to watch her. Both scenarios were bad. "See you again," Zuko added amiably.

Tao continued to smile at Katara for a moment, and Zuko really wanted to punch that smile off his face, but they had more important things to worry about. Zuko and Katara both stood in awkward silence as Tao smiled and waved and passed them. As soon as he saw Tao disappear out the door, a breath escaped Zuko. Katara arched a brow at her secret boyfriend.

"He's not that bad," she nudged him.

Zuko stared at her as though he wanted to burn a hole through the smile Tao had left on her face. "He was flirting with you," he pointed out darkly. "I thought we'd already established I was the jealous type," he dropped his voice to a whisper to remind her of that little detail. The ghost of a smirk crossed his face.

Katara's mild, polite smile disappeared and she suddenly grinned like an idiot, looking as though she wanted to grab his arm and hug it. "Have I ever mentioned how much I love that about you?" she replied, her voice also a whisper, but so casual that if anyone heard it, they wouldn't think anything of it. Katara drew a breath and then gestured out of the library. "Come on, then. We'd better get out of here; too many people around."

Zuko agreed wordlessly, and the two stepped out of the library, continuing down the hallway for a short while until Zuko recognized where they were. He had been in this hallway when Aidan had come back from prison. He glanced out the upper floor window - the same one he'd threatened to throw Aidan through. A hand came up and pinched the bridge of his nose. How could he not have seen that coming? Aidan was mad about world destruction.

Of _course _he'd be on the 'communist-America' bandwagon.

He turned his mind to the letter from Suki. He supposed they ought to figure out what they planned to tell her and Sokka about Toph. That they hadn't seen or heard from her, and that it looked like she really was dead. After everything they had done to save Toph from the CIA, she had died at the hands of the Dai Li. There was a kick in the teeth for you. He grunted, not wanting to think about that just yet.

* * *

><p>Kelly drummed the pads of her fingers on the steering wheel. This was stupid. So fucking, fucking stupid. Why was she doing this?<p>

Because of Katara. Katara had needed this, and she had wanted to help Katara.

Kelly willed herself to get the fuck out of the car, but she was parked in front of the old practice where she and Kya had worked together, unable to move from the driver's seat. She had wanted to leave this town the second Hakoda had expressed feelings for her, but this had held her. She knew she had wanted to help Katara, and she had promised to, and she never broke her promises.

She reached out for the door handle and tugged it down with a hollow click. The door popped open next to her, and Kelly reached across herself to unbuckle her seatbelt. Kelly jangled her keys in her hand, swiveled in her seat and stepped out onto the curb. There had to be something in the old practice to help Katara find Kya's killers. As an accomplished psychiatrist, Kelly wondered if she should really be helping a fifteen-year-old girl find certain people only to slaughter them in cold blood.

But these were the men who'd murdered Kya. They deserved what was coming to them. Right?

Kelly had to shuffle through her keys in search before she found her key to the practice and unlocked the door. She glanced up the street; there were cars swishing past on the road, and she saw an agent at either end of the street, keeping watch. She hadn't done anything wrong, she reminded herself. They weren't about to attack her.

The door creaked open, and dust scattered after years of stillness. Kelly ducked into the darkness of the powerless practice.

* * *

><p>There were murmurs of hesitation that lunch hour in the underground gymnasium. Rebels with second thoughts filled the space with quiet mutters of discontent; of fear and wariness. Aang was disheartened to see that Jin didn't show up, but he hadn't expected her to after Jet's wounds. Smellerbee and Longshot were also absent, but the Duke was present, his face set hard in determination.<p>

Aang could practically read his thoughts on his features. He wanted to get the Dai Li back for what they'd done to Jet. The Avatar didn't know if this was bad or good.

Slowly, Aang pushed some tables together and leapt up with airbending, clearing his throat to gain the attention of the rebels. He searched the room for Katara and Zuko, but they too were absent; they usually weren't, so he assumed they were missing only because they were being careful not to lead any agents to the hidden meeting place.

Aang held one hand high over his head, the plans acquired in the raid held in it. "I want everyone to gather around!" he called across the gym, his voice more powerful than usual; Jet was always the one to put a firm hold on the meetings, but someone had to do it in his absence. Jet was a born leader, Aang mused to himself. The rebels turned their gazes to him, but otherwise remained unmoved. Toph would've smacked every single one of them for the looks they were giving him right now.

Aang couldn't help but furrow his brow, irritated.

"Listen up!" he pointed his other hand into the crowd. "If you guys think we're giving up because our first raid went bad, then you're not cut out for this!" he yelled at them sternly. "_Yes, _Jet got hurt, and _Yes, _we nearly didn't make it out. But if we let that stop us, then last night was for _nothing! _This is bigger than any single one of us! Bigger than me! Bigger than Jet! And Jet went in _knowing _that."

The crowd turned more to face him, more perceptible to his words.

"There are others caught up in this war!" Aang explained, his hands coming to his sides and his eyes running over his rebels. "Families; mothers and fathers and children who _can't fight for themselves. _We're not fighting just for our own futures here. We're fighting for the way of life we had before!"

Some drew nearer to Aang.

"We're fighting for the hot coffee you dunk your donuts in on a Saturday morning at the coffee shop on third street! For the moment where everyone sings 'take me out to the ball park' at a baseball game!" he raised his fist up and then threw it down to point into the faces of his peers. "For your right to _love _someone!" he added in seriously, having heard all about the dating ban.

One boy cheered. Another joined in behind him.

"We're fighting for the hangover you have on New Years' Day! For the sprinkles in your ice-cream soda! For the homework that bitch Donovan gives you that you never plan to do!" Aang found a grin wriggling its way onto his face.

The cheers grew, and the crowd assembled around him, neat and packed and inspired.

"For the notes you pass around the classroom! The spring break surfing competition! The Blue Spirit! The Painted Lady! _What are we fighting for?_" Aang shouted out, straining his words with every emotion he had left in his body after this crazy month, and in some corner of his mind, both feared and hoped that the agents above would hear him.

"**Dahlia Coast!**" the room roared.

* * *

><p>"Why aren't we going to the others?" Zuko murmured, as Katara pulled him into a classroom he could only assume, and hope, was empty. The door clicked shut behind them and he scanned his eyes around the dimly lit room. There were no agents, no students, no 'educators'. They were alone. That fact alone brought a stream of giddiness into Zuko's stomach.<p>

Katara smirked at him, catching wind of the little smile playing on his face. She allowed him to think of whatever it was in his mind in the moment, for a few seconds before she shot it down. "We need to write a letter back to Suki and Sokka," she told him quietly, and checked the windows to be sure nobody outside would hear. The door was windowless. If an agent passed the room, and they were quiet enough, they wouldn't get caught.

Zuko watched her approach a desk and pull out a chair. She flipped open her shoulder bag and pulled out the letter, putting it on the surface of the desk and drawing out one of her school books to pull some paper out of. She tore out some pages, set them on the desk, drew a pen from the bottom of the bag, and put the book back in. Her bag slumped to the floor when she was done with it.

Katara began to write. "I'm telling them about the raid," she began, eyes focused on the paper as she wrote. "And I'll tell them we haven't heard from Toph."

Zuko nodded and pulled up a seat next to her with an exhale. "Right. And your Waterbending training; you should tell them about that too."

"Right. What about you? I thought you were training with your uncle. Pakku said something about it."

Zuko furrowed his brow. "Yeah, I know. I keep telling myself I'm gonna do it, but a part of me is averse to the whole 'shoot-fire-out-of-my-hands' thing," he tried on a joke for size, but when he looked up to Katara, she saw her face looking only concerned. He breathed a sigh. "It's going to be gone soon, anyway, right? The bending? So, why put time and effort into it?"

Katara stared at him for a moment. "Aang said it himself, though," she started, slowly, "We'll need _benders _to take down the Dai Li. Isn't it worth it just to take oout the Dai Li?"

Zuko dropped an elbow on the table and looked down. "I was just thinking about it. What …" Zuko breathed out and ran his eyes over his own hands. "What if there could be bending … but no Dai Li?" he suggested, looking up to her again, to see a thoughtful, pensive expression on her face.

Katara opened her mouth to protest - bending was dangerous, and that was that - but then she stopped and shut her eyes, thinking. It sounded nice and all, but still. It was like giving every other bucktoothed hick, psycho rapist, crazy serial killer and nutcase in the world super powers and letting them have a field day! They needed to get rid of bending completely.

A world of benders was only safe, ironically, ruled by the Dai Li. Nobody would go against them, bending or not.

So it was a choice between life the way it had been and life under the Dai Li. Katara knew her choice already, but by the hopeful way Zuko was looking at her, felt she shouldn't say anything on the matter. She just pulled a face and changed the subject. "You know, Lydia talked to me earlier."

Zuko was quiet for a moment, catching her attempt to steer the conversation elsewhere. By that alone, he could tell she didn't agree with him. He breathed a sigh and switched back to the subject at hand. "So I guess I should learn firebending, then, huh?" he asked plainly, almost spitting his words, "Just to lose it all once everything's done and dusted?" he added distastefully.

Katara glared at him. "Zuko, be reasonable," she began calmly, trying to piece together her words. She understood he was thinking about it, and it wasn't up to her to change his mind, but he was already tense, for some reason. She didn't want to push any berserk buttons. "Bending … it's not something people are _ready _for. People don't get the whole 'with great power comes great responsibility' thing like you and me and Aang," she tried tentatively.

Zuko suddenly got up, and Katara was sure she saw his shoulders tensing up. What was up with him? It was as if something had just crossed his mind and just taken a crap on their mood. "You're probably right," he murmured, moving his thumbs to tuck into jeans' pockets, and then realizing his uniform trousers didn't have pockets. Katara heard him grunt under his breath. "It seems like a waste," he pointed out dully, turning his back to her and pacing slowly.

The Marina girl lowered her eyes and mulled this over. She considered the fact that if Aang had his way, bending would disappear and her Waterbending with it. She winced inwardly. Her element seemed almost a part of her now. Losing it would be like … like losing a limb, she supposed. It was so deeply intertwined with her personality and her inner thoughts now.

"It's going to hurt," she spoke up thoughtfully, eyes downcast. "To lose it."

Zuko glanced back to her and caught the solemn look on her face. It was solemn, but serene, and almost accepting. Zuko frowned, hard. Why should they lose their bending now? From what Aang had said, it seemed like Bending had always _been, _and that it had somehow been deactivated in the first place, about a thousand years ago; probably after Aang's time. It was all well and good for Aang to say how dangerous it was, when he'd lived in a time where it had been _everything._

It was genetic. Something inside their own minds and bodies, and for someone to take it away seemed more outrageous than the Dai Li and the bomb giving it to them. Zuko raised a hand in front of him and focused on the light of the sun outside. His irritation flared up in him, and a spark lit at his fingertip, before a flame came to life in his palm. His brows came down even harder, and he wanted to kill the flame, but it only grew.

'_Calm down; Just calm down.' _He told himself, and drew a breath. The flame died as he told it to, but only just.

Katara was looking up at him again - he could feel her gaze on his back, and he turned to look at her. She quickly looked back down to her paper and continued writing, as though she had been thinking something she felt guilty for thinking. Zuko approached her again and put his hands on the table. "Katara. What if we could _keep _our bending?"

Katara tried to keep her eyes down.

"Katara. Listen to me."

She paused with the pen in her fingers and looked up again, her brows down but her eyes receptive.

Zuko smiled briefly at the thoughts skittering across his mind, and the open look on her face. "Think about it," he blinked optimistically, "Can you imagine all the possibilities of a world with bending?" he zeroed his focus in on her blue eyes, his gaze unrelenting. "Katara; look me in the eye right now and tell me you don't feel empowered by your Waterbending. Tell me you don't mind having to lose it, and we can completely forget this conversation."

Katara opened her mouth to protest, but paused, sighing. "Zuko, you _heard _Aang. I know there are a lot of possibilities, but I'm telling you right now that there are more bad things that could happen than good," she tried to reason with him. "I love waterbending. But sometimes … you just have to give up something you love for what you believe in."

Zuko stared at her for a moment, looking confused. He looked hurt for a moment, and then his good brow came down, hard. It would seem the two had extremely opposing views on bending, and while he didn't like being at odds like this with her, he thought she had a point. You had to make a stand for what you believed in; and Zuko believed his bending was a part of him now, and he didn't want to delve deeper into it without knowing it was going to stay. It would hurt.

But he couldn't say that. He shut his eyes, loosened his expression, and sighed through his nose, looking for words. "I guess we'll have to agree to disagree, huh?" he scoffed, standing straight and removing his hands from the table, moving out of that looming position he'd just held over her.

Katara went back to writing her letter. As much as he knew she needed to write the letter, he wanted to talk to her about bending. To ask her what it felt like when her element shifted to her command. He wanted to convince her that there was a way they could keep their bending, but even he didn't know that there was. He just hoped.

* * *

><p>Katara left the school frustrated after her last lesson. Zuko had offered to give her a ride home on the bike, but she told him she had some errand to run for Aang. This got a little grunt of irritation from him, but she tried to ignore it. Katara wondered if this had spurred out of the disaster last night; maybe he was confused because he'd seen Aidan firebending, and she'd been hurt, and Jet was probably going to die. Maybe it would pass. Maybe he'd change his mind and realize that he was being crazy.<p>

Jeez. She hadn't wanted to be one of _those _girlfriends. She didn't want to be the type that crushed dreams and stuff. He wanted to keep his bending. What was so wrong about that?

Bah! Everything was wrong with it! The only reason she had learnt Waterbending was to fight fire with fire against the Dai Li. Bending against bending. It was the only way to beat them. When everything was over, she could go back to normal. Ha. Yeah, right.

"Miss Marina?" someone spoke up from behind, and Katara instantly gasped and turned on her heel, ready to proclaim her innocence.

"I wasn't-!" Katara exclaimed as she turned, stopping. When she saw the Tao boy behind her, she frowned, let her shoulders droop and sighed heavily. Katara was glad not to see an agent, but someone in a uniform. Just a student. She didn't think he was a Dai Li spy; maybe he was a Dai Li agents' son, but that didn't make him a spy. If Hakoda was a secret agent and moved around the country and had to go from school to school, she'd probably be irritated with people thinking she was a spy.

Or something like that that actually made sense.

"Oh. Sorry. I thought you were … um … you know."

Tao blinked at her, pushed his glasses further up his nose with an index finger, and smiled briefly. "Sorry about that, Miss Marina. I just … saw you walking alone and I thought someone ought to …" he cleared his throat awkwardly. "Walk with you. For … safety purposes," he added. At this point, Katara did a quick once-over of him. He wasn't unattractive. Slightly taller than her, and a year older, and he had that whole 'quiet and sensitive' thing going for him too.

Katara blinked at him for a moment, and she could have laughed. For one, she was the Painted Lady. Tao didn't know that, and she was glad he didn't, but she was the Painted Lady and most people couldn't hurt her if they tried. Secondly, she was a waterbender; and a damn fine one, if she said so herself. Again, not that she wanted anyone to know that. But it was somewhat charming just that he thought she was all delicate and girly and all that shit the Dai Li wanted girls to be.

Katara sighed and smiled. "Well, come on then. I'm just headed to Vinny's ice cream. You know the place?"

Tao nodded and smiled too, approaching and taking her side. "I do, Miss Marina. It's quaint and lively. A perfect choice for an after-school snack, if I may say so," he pointed out approvingly.

Katara found herself grinning, adjusting her bag on her injured shoulder. "It's Katara. I get the whole politeness thing, but I don't tend to go by my last name," she told him calmly. "And yeah, Vinny's is a great place for after-school get-togethers," she added, and then her smile faltered reminiscently.

Tao's face softened somewhat. "Of course, Katara," he nodded amicably, trying her name on his tongue. "I find the caramel sundaes there to be rather fantastic."

Katara laughed, despite the bad mood Zuko had put her in.

_**Bzzzzz. Bzzzzz.**_

The Painted Lady suddenly frowned and smacked a hand to her bag as they walked, feeling her phone vibrating inside it. She shot Tao an apologetic look, because she thought it might be considered rude to answer one's cell phone in this situation, and flipped open her bag. She didn't worry about the letters; she'd given both to Zuko to take to his uncle's messenger birds. Katara phone slid out into her hand and she gazed at the screen, disinterested at first, hoping it wasn't Zuko.

'**TOPH BEI FONG. ANSWER. REJECT.'**

She blinked, incredulous. Perhaps she had answered the letter too soon. She looked to Tao. "Sorry, I have to take this call!" she blurted suddenly, thwapped her thumb into the green light on the screen and brought the phone up to her ear. "Hello?" she asked suddenly. Tao stood near - too near for comfort - and waited. She wanted to say her friend's name.

But maybe it was just a kid who'd found Toph's phone, fucking around. The idea hurt. And Toph was blind now, so she probably couldn't use it. Oh, Jesus, Toph was really and truly dead.

There was a clatter on the other end of the line. Katara's heart leapt into her throat and she couldn't hold it back. "Toph? Toph are you there?" she found herself asking desperately. "Toph?" she shouted into the phone.

"_Katara!" _the phone sputtered reluctantly, crackling with dystopian chaos on the other end. Toph. Oh, fucking hell, _Toph! _She was alive, thank the fucking heavens! Katara wanted to slap her for scaring everyone half to death, but then the blind bandit shouted on the other end of the line. _"Get off me! Fuck you! You'll never take me alive!"_

Katara felt her face fall, and her eyes grew salty. "T-Toph?" she asked, this time her voice wavering. Tao stared at her, and Katara was glad he didn't understand.

"_I'm alright! I'm blind and I'm an earthbender- Agh! -but … I'm alright, okay Katara? You can hear me right?"_

The older girl struggled to take this in. She answered immediately. "I can hear you!" she replied.

"_Good-," _Toph began to say, and then there was a heavy 'whump' of a noise, and Katara assumed the blind bandit was down on the ground. She sounded breathless and exhausted. The phone must have clattered to the floor near her. _"Agh, shit!" _Toph was gasping in pain. _"You bastards! Get off! Get-!"_

'_BEEEEEEEEEEEEE'_

Katara waited for more. She waited for some long, long seconds, and then her phone ended the call for her. She stared into the middle distance, slowly pulled her phone from her ear, and then moved her staring gaze to the phone. "Oh fuck," Katara whispered to herself. She looked to Tao, who looked as though he was waiting for an explanation.

"What was that?" he asked slowly.

Katara tossed the phone back into her bag and started to run away; to find Aang, to find someone; _anyone_. "I have to go! I'm sorry!"

* * *

><p><strong>AN: WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH ME.**

**Okay, so the last chapter was WAY too wordy for my regular writing style, and this chapter has kind of gone the other way, but I'm finding my style again, kay? And I've taken wayyy too long to write this. It's because of Makorra; I find myself writing oneshots I never actually post.**

**I think. Not sure.**

**In ... other news ... *pathetic whimper* ... I have lambs. In my room. Two of them. *Head on keyboard*. Seriously. I know how long it's been since I posted a new chapter by how long I've had them - nearly a month. **

**This time they're not orphans, but their mother just rejected them. I had Toots first, since she was the runt, and the first rejected, and when we went up a few days later, her twin brother (now named Tony) had also been rejected. And now they're in the back yard in the day and in my room in the night. Yes; they have their food in a baby bottle.**

**Also, Korra is in less than an hour goddammit and I'll be out of the house when it gets on the web. More random facts about my life? Sure, why not?**

**Last night I went to the opera, checked the LOK tumblr at my grandmother's house and freaked out when I saw that Zuko's alive (*cough*and Zutara is still technically possible*cough*)! Grandma thinks I'm weird. Also, my horse got taken away. I had her on loan and the bitch who loaned her to us sold her without telling us. She took her away. :'(.**

**Yeah. I'm gonna need lotsa therapy.**

**Next chapter, I hope to get back to my regular style; btw, tell me if I'm getting better. Cause I don't friggin know. REVIEW!**

**Chapter title lyrics are from The Killers' 'Human'.**

**(Also, the ATLA fic page is like, deserted now that everyone's moved to LOK. Wtf?)**


	13. You Have So Many Faces

The first thing they had to figure out was where the Dai Li would have taken Toph. Aang and Katara were sure that it had to be the Dai Li who'd taken her, as the two spread out some of the documents stolen in the raid the night prior, on the pool table in the Marina house parlor. The largest document was the one they had in the middle of the others; a map of the city, with some surrounding lands.

On the eastern side of the city, just outside, and off the suburban area, Katara could see all of Song McFarlane's family's cool hundred acres, and the rich district where the Marina house was situated. To the western side of the map, not far from the beach, Milton Avenue lay long and straight, with one row of mansions with their backs toward the beach, and the other - the side on which Zuko's mansion was - with long acres of well-kept, mown grassland behind them. In the southern part of the city, the downtown nightlife was clearly depicted in grays of varying shades, depending on the height of the buildings. To the north, there were acres and acres of forestry, and a gray box depicting the two-story abandoned mansion on the top of the woodland hill.

Across the map, there were four spots marked with characters. Aang didn't speak Chinese - much to Katara's chagrin - but he made a low comment that he was sure Toph did. Katara couldn't help but tell him 'yeah, well Toph isn't here', and then apologize for being so curt with him. Aang waved it off. He told her he'd been just as short with people in the long Toph-less spell of the past few weeks.

But it was over now. He was going to save her.

"Okay," Katara breathed, leaning over the pool table and running the fingertips of her left hand over the velvet top of the pool table beside the papers. "From what I can tell, it looks like these spots are either what the Dai Li consider to be places of interest, or prisoner strongholds. This one here," she pointed to the lake deep in the northern forests, "is the most suspicious, though. Why would they want to keep tabs on a lake?"

Aang arched his brow, raised a hand and rubbed at his chin in a rather Sokka-like fashion. "It is pretty suspicious. The other three spots are buildings; Cures USA, a five-star hotel by the name of The Grand Phoenix Hotel, and City Hall. It would make sense for _them_ to be places of interest, but there can't be anything to really watch up in the woods."

Katara screwed up her face. In the woods last summer, there had been a girl killed while doing pledges for Azula's sorority in school. The girls had been supposed to find their way to a marked point in the forest with only a map, a few scattered landmarks like cravings on trees, a compass and a flashlight, but this girl had disappeared and been found hung from a noose in a tree the next morning. Before then, the woods had been a pretty popular place for people to hang out. The lake had been a popular fishing spot, and there had been picnic benches there. Families had gone hiking up there.

But now it was completely deserted. Perhaps that's what the Dai Li wanted - a place they were sure the people would stay away from. "The would keep all prisoners in one place," Katara began thoughtfully, "And Cures USA probably doesn't have facilities for that anyway. It's more likely they keep _that_ locked down to keep their activation serum under control, away from prying eyes."

Aang seemed to latch onto her train of thought. "Right. And City Hall, they could just be keeping as a place for their treasury, and making new regional rules for the city. That's probably where they make changes to the local curfew, and arrange all the patrol routes. And they probably just use the Grand Phoenix as barracks for their agents," he assumed eloquently, and his face lit up, briefly, before confusion wrote itself on his face. "So they're keeping their prisoners at the lake?"

Katara's features hardened. "Or disposing the bodies there," she murmured slowly.

Aang lifted his gaze to stare at Katara, a white-hot rage burning through his gut. He almost wanted to slap her for saying such a thing, but she was right. The Dai Li weren't above execution. They had killed every last one of his people trying to find him. Aang furrowed his brow, worried, and tried to calm himself down. "Toph is alright. They'll want to interrogate her; you said she told you she could bend, right?"

Katara immediately nodded, looking up too. "So she's probably still alive," she stated hopefully.

Aang nodded quickly. "We'd better get going," he pushed away from the pool table and dusting himself off. "It's our only lead, and they might switch things up since we have this information, right? Better not give them a chance to change protocol."

Katara agreed and the two pushed out of the room, into the bright light of the hallway. They made their way to the staircase and made short work of its steps, moving up, through the upstairs hall and straight into Katara's bedroom, where she grabbed her incognito attire. It had been laid across the bed as soon as Katara had decided they were saving Toph tonight. Zuko would've told her to rest up - she was injured, after all - but the Dai Li wouldn't wait to kill Toph.

She'd saved Toph before with Zuko being awkward, and she'd damn well do it again if she had to.

Katara geared up and clipped her guns to her thighs, while Aang went through a pile of clothes he'd found left in Sokka's room for something dark, discreet and protecting to wear. He found some snow boots and dark jeans, and a zip-up hooded jacket to go on over his gray t-shirt, tugging on a plain black baseball cap from under the Marina boy's bed.

"Here," Katara tossed something over her shoulder to him without looking.

Aang caught it on instinct; it was a clanking rucksack that he unzipped to find various protective wear. He guessed they belonged to Sokka, for Kendo, but they looked like they would mute a hell of a lot of damage from earthbender attacks. "Thanks," he answered briskly, strapping the forearm guards on in turn. "How's your Waterbending?" he asked, while gearing up, "if you run out of ammo, or your bullets aren't hitting, you need to be able to fight with your bending," he informed her, his voice assertive.

Katara thought, while she pulled on the stolen boots of the Painted Lady. Bending last night had been on instinct. She hadn't really thought about it; if she could get into that unconscious state of instinctive defense, she knew she'd be able to hold her own. Her bending was strongest at night too; that would help. She just needed to keep her mind and body fluid, and she'd be able to do it. "Don't worry about me. I can bend," she assured him, and herself in the process. She put on her mask and tied it behind her head.

"Good," Aang turned to face her, tugging on the jacket, over whatever gear he had put on without restricting his movement. "Let's do this."

* * *

><p>Zuko knocked politely on the room Iroh was staying in at the mansion. He waited for a moment and then carefully pushed it open to peer inside. His uncle wasn't in the room, so he stepped back and glanced down the hallway, wondering where the older man might be. Lu Ten would've known, if it was the beach house, but Lu Ten had vowed years ago never to step foot in this house after a rather dramatic punch-up with Ozai's driver, Zhao. Lu Ten had broken his vow a few times since, but he mostly stuck to it.<p>

He honestly didn't know why he was doing this; he'd said he wouldn't learn firebending only to lose it, and here he was looking for his uncle to get started on his training. Katara would have his head on a stick.

But Katara was wrong; she'd said it herself, in essence. It would _hurt _to lose her bending. That was how ingrained in her it was. Everything pointed to bending. His uncle, who Zuko had come to believe had been everywhere, was apparently a master firebender, and it had run in the family for a long, long time. Zuko wanted to know more; how this was possible, how they'd kept it a secret for so long. But he couldn't ask Ozai.

His uncle would know, surely. The only thing he didn't know was whether his uncle would tell him.

"Uncle's in father's office," Azula's voice piped up.

Zuko spun on his heels, eyes darting around for his sister. He didn't see her. "Where are you?" he suddenly snapped, irritated.

Azula stepped out from behind one of the pillars against the walls of the wide, marble hall, smirking. Her arms had been crossed over her chest, but they were coming free to be held behind her back. "Looks like you've changed your mind about firebending, Zuzu," she remarked, smug.

Zuko exhaled a short breath that accidentally flickered with fire. "I'm not in the mood for games, Azula," he told her, and moved to pass her, to go to Ozai's office.

Azula strolled into his path and raised a hand to stop him. Zuko glared down at her, but she regarded him only with a wily smile. "Are you serious about firebending, Zuko?" she hissed, her face remaining a picture of stony calmness. "I thought you were _afraid_ of losing it," she quirked up one corner of her mouth.

Zuko narrowed his good eye at her. "I don't _plan _to lose it," he retorted, and then shoved his way past her.

"Wonderful. So you're going to join the Dai Li? Like your friend Aidan?" Azula's voice cooed behind him.

Zuko froze in his steps and glanced over his shoulder. How did she even _know _about Aidan? How did she know he was a firebender? He'd done his very best to keep Aidan a part of his past locked up tight, away from prying eyes. It was unsettling for Azula to know things like this, but she usually came upon information like that eventually, he surmised. "How do you know about Aidan?" he tried on his most calm tone of voice.

"I know a lot of things," Azula replied quickly and dismissively. "I was keeping tabs on you and your rebel party last night."

Zuko blinked at her, and turned fully to face her. "Why?"

"To see how one runs a rebellion," Azula raised a hand to inspect her nails nonchalantly, but her brother caught her by the wrist.

Zuko ground his teeth and pushed his brow down hard over his eyes. "And _why_ would _you_ want to know a thing like that?" he demanded, tightening his grip on her.

Azula smirked at him. "Because I see this whole tiff with the Dai Li as an opportunity," she began, her hand slipping through Zuko's grip so she could step back and away from him. When she caught the skeptic look in his eyes, she waved a hand dismissively, and vaguely replied, "I too plan to keep my bending, brother."

* * *

><p>It was slightly past sunset when Katara and Aang broached the edge of the forest, and the sky was a mid-blue above them. Katara thought she could see the foggy outline of the waning crescent moon in the clouds that had crawled across the sky sine school. It had taken a while to get here between Dai Li agent patrol changeovers, and Aang wished they'd gotten here sooner, with more light to work with.<p>

Katara's face, below the mask of the Painted Lady, screwed up to a grimace. "We're going to get lost in the woods, Aang. It's too dark," she stated with distaste and anxiety in her voice.

Aang glanced back at her - she was right, but he wasn't going to let the dark stop them. They had brought nearly nothing; just the clothes on their backs, Katara's guns and a staff with a use unknown to Katara. Aang spun his staff on his hand like a baton, causing Katara to take an instinctive step back. He stabbed the bottom of it into the ground at his feet and it released a subtle flutter, like a bird taking flight. Faded orange cloth wings spread from the staff. Katara blinked at him through her mask.

"The woods aren't going to be a problem," Aang told her sharply, and gestured for her to come closer to him. "Grab onto me. Hold tight," he added for good measure.

Katara arched her brow under her mask - her friend didn't see it. "Please don't tell me you can fly," she hissed reluctantly, taking a hesitant step to him.

Aang grinned despite the seriousness of all things, spreading his arms to the top of the glider and holding it up over himself so that when he took off he could latch his feet into the hooks for them. "Come on. We don't have all night."

Katara drew nearer and awkwardly hooked her arms around her friend's neck, unsure that he was strong enough to hold her weight - while bending, no less. He was slightly shorter than her, though muscular, and she'd never really seen him do much in the way of lifting heavy objects; speed had always been his area of physical expertise. Physical brawn had always been more Sokka's thing.

"When we take off, you can hook one of your feet into one of those," Aang pointed down the staff, to where the two foot-hooks were, "and then hook your other foot behind your knee. Hold on and leave the rest to me."

Katara was still skeptical, linking her hands around opposite wrists behind Aang's shoulders. When he drew a breath, hands clenching on the top of his glider, Katara was just about ready to tell him to stop kidding around, but at that moment, Aang shot up in her arms and she nearly let go on instinct. Her hands suddenly clenched on one another and she felt her eyes widening in her head. She was thankful her wrist on the injured arm wasn't burnt, because her right hand was clenched on it.

She shouted out, but instruction was taking over and her legs were looking for the hook Aang ad only just pointed to. When she was sure she wasn't going to fall down - and now she could see the tops of the trees feet below them, god help her - she could get a handle on just what was actually going on. She kicked one foot out for the hook and caught it with much force, causing the glider to jerk downward for a moment before Aang calmly corrected the flight pattern.

Katara finally managed to look up to Aang, who was flying over her with his eyes pointed forward. The wind was throwing her ponytail into her face, but she had something to say and she was going to get it out, dammit. "You could've warned me!" she blurted, voice tumbling out gracelessly on the gusts of wind that came with flying.

Aang kept his eyes pointed in the direction they were flying, but his grin grew. "You know," he began conversationally - as though flying was the most natural thing in the world for him - with a little glance down at her, "I know how bad things are, but flying is amazing. I missed it."

Katara blinked at the wind in her face. She rather disagreed, initially, with wind blowing into her from angles wind had never come at her from, feeling like a fish out of water, but after a moment of getting used to it, she had to concede that yes, flying was pretty cool. She tilted her head back a little, and while the wind blew into her eyes through her mask, she liked the upside-down view of the woods below.

Aang's eyes turned sad then, briefly. "On the down side, the Dai Li are trying to take over the world," he pointed out, his smile faltering.

Katara felt the need to comfort him and gave a grin of her own. "Win some, lose some," she tried cheerfully.

This boosted the airbender's mood rather substantially.

* * *

><p>Toph paced, hungry, hot and unable to bend. It had been only hours since she'd been taken captive, but she disliked it all the same. It reminded her of that horrible, foodless, sleepless spell in the custody of the CIA, and it was only made worse by the metal incarceration she was trapped in. She had only thought of earthbending against the Dai Li - had never thought they might have something she couldn't bend to hold her with.<p>

She could see, vaguely, through the vibrations in the metal floor, and she had tried to find weaknesses in her imprisonment, but with no luck. She was really and truly fucking trapped. And it was so _fucking _hot in here! Why was it so hot? She had no idea where she was; she could have been in a metal container in the desert for all she knew.

Toph supposed she could stop pacing, calm herself and listen - that usually helped things - but she was just too irritated and agitated to do that. Smellerbee would, at the very least, know to do something, right? Even if Katara hadn't gotten her desperate message, there was still Smellerbee and Longshot.

"Calm the fuck down, Toph," the blind bandit grabbed her own arm as if to stop herself. "You've gotten out of worse," she tried to reason, reaching up to wipe sweat from her forehead. She grunted in annoyance. "It's so fucking hot in here!" she complained loudly, and marched to the metal door to whack it and get someone's attention.

Her feet clanged loudly on the metal under her, sending crazy vibrations through her senses. She really needed to calm down; if she stomped around, she'd dull her own senses. Toph stopped herself again and clenched her fists. Someone must have heard, because she could hear footsteps outside her cell.

"Be still, Miss Bei Fong. Your father will be here soon," came a still, calm voice, accented in Chinese. Toph guessed the agent for a native speaker and quickly switched over to Chinese to simplify things. She wanted to know where she was; what her extended family's stupid connection to the Dai Li had gotten her into.

She demanded to know where she was, in fluent Chinese that disarmed the guard, who hadn't expected her to speak the language.

He replied solemnly that her father had told the Dai Li to capture her - to take her down, dead or alive. At least, that was what the order had been.

Toph's blind eyes widened and she felt her stomach clench for a moment. For a moment, it was unclear and confusing and didn't make sense, and then … then it made _perfect _sense. Why would he keep her alive as a liability to him? He just wanted his happy, comfortable little life, didn't he? His partner spot at Chander, Bei Fong and Marina, his nice compound mansion, his trophy wife; those trophies for nothing in particular in his office.

She should have seen this coming. When she wasn't making him look good, she was dispensable. If she was causing him trouble, why _wouldn't _he have her taken out? Toph supposed she would do the same thing in his position. Right?

No. _No, _she would _never _do that. How could someone do that to their own _child_?

At her silence, the agent had left; Toph was sure of it. So she turned and put her back to the door, lifting a hand and rubbing at her forehead, frustrated. When she got out of here, she'd have her father's head on a stick. She'd have liked to think that Poppy would stop Lao from putting a hit on her, but Poppy was weak to him. Toph had once thought she preferred her father to her mother, but whether or not Poppy thought she was a helpless little blind (previously colorblind) girl, she could at least say Poppy would never willingly set a death warrant on her.

So that was something, right?

Toph's fingers clenched on sweaty hair - why hadn't she had a shower that morning? - and she squeezed her blind eyes shut. This was a real pain in the ass. America was quickly turning into a dictatorship, her father had given the enemy a go-ahead to kill her, Aang was AWOL - no surprise there, she mused glumly, but then again she had told him to leave her the fuck alone, in no uncertain terms - and she was in some god-forsaken prisoner-of-war stronghold, sore from fighting and with only enough kick left in her to possibly, maybe, if she was lucky, make a hundred-meter dash. Maybe.

She was bruised all over her back from hitting the ground after a thirty-foot drop out of the abandoned apartment building, though she supposed she should consider herself lucky that was all she'd gotten from that, and her knuckles were split and sore and probably bloody from fighting - bending or hand-to-hand, she still wasn't sure.

She had to get out of here. Someone would come, and when they did, she wasn't going to cling to them and make some ditzy, breathy, damsel-in-distress 'oh my hero' speech when they did. Toph would be ready to go. She supposed she could try to muster up the energy to fight by going to sleep, but it was too fucking hot for that.

Toph dropped her head back against the door she had sat against, and sensed the vibration that went through it. Except different from earth. Similar to it, but somehow different. Her brow came down. She lifted her head from it and turned, placing her hand on the metal. At her touch, there was a tiny little vibration.

Toph tapped her thumb on the metal, her fingers taking in the reverberations it sent out.

A gasp escaped her the moment her senses caught two little impurities in the metal. Toph suddenly grinned. She was a Math genius - she'd always failed miserably at Biology and Chemistry, but for a split moment, she thought back to a lesson back in freshman year. The table of elements, or whatever it was called. She scraped her fingernails on the metal to test it for resistance and sound.

Steel. She was sure of it.

If she had learnt nothing else from school - and besides Math, that was probably the case - she knew that metal was condensed earth. So … theoretically … she supposed it might be bendable. Ha. Fuck that. If she said budge, dammit, that metal better fucking _budge._

Toph smacked her hands to the metal and it sent out twin reverberations. Like stars in the night sky - she remembered them - she could feel the little imperfections in the metal. She flattened her palm on the metal, and then set about pulling it into a fist. At first, her sweaty palms slid on the metal, and she felt disheartened, but she reinforced her iron will. Toph had to get out of here, one way or the other.

'_Now __**move**__ it, you sonovabitch!' _Toph swore in her head at the metal.

As if on cue, the metal whined and curved toward her palm.

* * *

><p>Katara half wished Zuko was with them for some light - if not with bending, then he could always be trusted to carry a lighter at all times - as she raised the map above her, hoping to get some light from what little of the moon was showing. She grit her teeth irritably, thinking back to that woman at the circus all those weeks ago. She had been able to make the water glow. That would really have come in handy right now.<p>

"Well, this is the place," Katara finally stated, dropping her eyes from the map she held up to the sky to the murky water of the lake before them. It didn't look like much; a dead end. A bust. "It was probably just put on the map to throw us off, Aang." Either nothing had ever been here in the first place, or the Dai Li had moved things around after the raid last night. But could they really up-and-remove a whole compound in one day?

Aang shook his head and motioned to the water. "No. It's still here. It's just like Lake Laogai," he murmured, lifting a hand to his chin and moving toward the edge of the water - the lake lapped and wet the tips of his boots.

Katara furrowed her brow at him. "Lake what-now?"

"Lake Laogai," Aang explained, waving a hand. "Back in my time, Ba Sing Se had a famous stronghold under a lake called Lake Laogai, run by the Dai Li. They used to take prisoners there and brainwash them, according to myths and rumors. I never believed them, but I guess it's the only lead we have."

Katara blinked in the darkness. "So the Dai Li have been … crazy world-dominating psychos for … a long time, then?" she pointed out, hearing her voice coming out a lot more dryly than she had intended.

Aang chuckled mirthlessly. "Yeah. And they've been biding their time until now. Waiting. For me, maybe," he thought aloud.

Katara drew a breath. "Aang?" she began, drawing nearer to the water and considering reaching out to it, "Can I ask what an Avatar is? I mean, I saw that weird blue-alien-people movie, and pretty sure it's not that, but … it sounds like you're not the same as me and Zuko and all the other benders. You're different. Aren't you?"

Aang glanced at her in the dark and then sighed. "The Avatar was a being capable of bending all four elements, often simultaneously. But that was never what made the Avatar as powerful as it was. Aside from having four elements at my disposal - if I ever get around to learning them - there's another thing," he lowered his eyes, seeming to become pensive and brooding. There was something else there - something he probably didn't want anyone to know about.

Katara squirmed uncomfortably - she didn't often see Aang this serious. "Wha- …" she paused and frowned behind her mask. "What is it?"

There was a short period of silence.

Aang quickly replied, "The Avatar state," with the brisk meekness of a man discussing his mistress with his wife.

Katara decided she didn't really need to know all that badly. At least not at the risk of putting a damper on Aang's mood; the poor guy had it hard enough these days. She turned her eyes to the water, searching for something. If the Dai Li had a stronghold _under _the lake, it would make sense to try to part the water and have a look-see. She drew a breath and shut her eyes - that was usually the first step with her bending.

_Push … and pull. Push … and pull._

Katara felt the water tugging at the edges of her consciousness and tried to focus on it. Push. Pull. Push. Pull. She breathed, and felt her fingers reach for the water of their own accord. She just wanted to separate the water; just a red sea deal. The water lapped into a ready-set groove for it, almost on cue, and Katara simply disallowed it to flow back into the ridge. The water moved out of the way on its own, and all Katara did was hold it.

Slowly, the shaky walls of her bending held the water away and became calmer with confidence. Katara peeked open one eye, and the water trembled at it, but she willed it to stay. She opened her eyes and peered into the water she held apart. She saw the muddy bottom of the lake, and in it, what looked like a metal secret-door panel. The Dai Li probably used earthbending to push it to the surface, she surmised. Aang stalked toward the opening of the water.

Katara knew something was off about the water in her power. She wasn't able to hold onto it. It felt like sand slipping through her fingers.

"Great work, Katara!" Aang complimented, and then moved, tentatively, into the path she had carved in the water. He stepped down into the lake; toward the panel.

Katara felt her concentration wavering, and the water gurgled, causing Aang to startle and stop. "Go! Hurry, before I …" she saw her bending wobble. "Aang, you'll have to go on without me!" she suddenly blurted, putting her focus into holding the water up. If she could freeze it to ice it would be something, but she couldn't do it now; she was paying too much attention.

She wondered if she should close her eyes again, but Aang seemed to agree with her, as he reached the panel and tugged open the watertight trap-door. He turned to smile at her, give her an affirming nod, and then he dropped down the panel, pulling it shut behind him. Katara's muscles had no trouble holding the water back, but her mind just wasn't trained enough for it.

The water flooded back into its original location, and the waterbender stood back, confused. She should have been able to do that. Katara turned her eyes up toward the slim remnant of the crescent moon.

_No. _It wasn't a crescent moon. It should have been still only slightly less than a quarter moon. She was sure she could have held that water.

But there was a partial lunar eclipse in the sky. It was the only thing she could possibly think would make her bending so weak. Katara's hands suddenly went to her guns, and she desperately hoped she wasn't attacked by Dai Li agents tonight, while waiting in the woods for Aang and Toph. She'd never escape the forest. She was a sitting duck here, and she only had her guns, and maybe some weak Waterbending attacks, assuming the eclipse didn't become full.

"Hurry up, Aang," Katara murmured, eyes shifting back and forth in the darkening night.

* * *

><p>Zuko was beginning to tire of sitting in one place doing nothing. Technically, he was meditating, but he didn't think he was doing it right. He was probably supposed to be thinking about the sun, or just fire in general, but all he could think about was the worried look on Katara's face earlier. Zuko furrowed his brow as best he could with the scar tissue around his left eye.<p>

He'd probably sounded like Aidan, talking about the possibility of _a world with bending. _Why did he have to be such a jackass and spring things like this on her when she was already hurt? She'd had a major kick in the teeth last night, and instead of sitting with her and writing to Sokka and Suki, he'd gone on about some crazy idea that was probably just as dangerous as she had portrayed it.

Shit. And now he was _letting _his mind wander. He was supposed to sit in the sunroom at the back of the house, eyes shut, surrounded by lit candles - and he was - and focus until he was sure he could feel the life of the flames. Zuko wasn't feeling any life from the candles, so he was probably doing badly.

Zuko was sat cross-legged on a small cushion on the floor in the center of the sunroom, with only the light of the circle of candles around him. Above, it was dark, but Zuko couldn't tell. He had resigned himself to at least keeping his eyes shut. He hoped it was just the bending that was throwing his mind around like this. He'd never fancied himself a revolutionary kind of person.

Bending without the Dai Li. What the hell was he thinking?

But, apparently, Azula was thinking the same thing. Were there other firebenders out there, thinking it too? Zuko imagined it. An army of firebenders.

_No. _It would have to be done peacefully; without militaristic action, except against the Dai Li. Zuko kept thinking it was _possible. _It was just a concept right now, but if he turned it in his mind a few times, he was sure he could come up with a plausible idea; something that would work for everyone. He shook it off as best he could and tried to get back to his meditation. What the fuck was he thinking anyway? Katara had said it; Aang's plan had been their plan all along, and he shouldn't have even been thinking of changing it now, while his bending was probably messing with his head.

But _still._

* * *

><p>Toph was in the middle of punching in her cell door (with little progress in the way of breaking it) when her ears picked up footsteps headed in her direction. She had been kneeling by the door, and so she quickly rolled onto her back and pushed away from it with her heels, kicking them over her head and somersaulting backwards to her feet, hands ready to attack. She had no earth to throw around, but she knew a thing or two about ass-kicking, and it could come in handy now.<p>

There were voices - they were speaking in Chinese. Toph was unpracticed with her native tongue, but she knew what they were saying, if she focused.

"_What the fuck happened to this door?"_

Toph sniggered despite the seriousness of all things. The second voice, however, wiped the smirk off her face rather quickly. Her father was here; that traitorous son of a bitch. She'd rip his eyes out, god damn him. She'd tear him limb from limb and leave the bloody remains of his corpse in a place ripe for animals to come and tear apart. Toph wondered when she had gotten so dark. Her thoughts sounded like something out of a slasher movie.

She stepped back from the door; maybe to give herself a run-up to smash her father's face in, since she assumed they were headed into her cell, and maybe just to be as far away from him as she could without backing herself up to the wall. She waited. The room was metallic and hot and irritating, and her senses were thrown out of balance by its echo, but she focused herself as best she could.

The locking mechanism on the outside of the door made a protesting grind of a noise; upon her entry of the cell, it had made no sound whatsoever, smooth and willing. Toph fought back the grin that came up to her face as the door slid aside on its rollers, until the depression she'd punched into it hit the frame and it stopped in its tracks. It was enough room for the agent who came into view to step in, and her father behind him, in his lavish homeland robes.

Ugh. Could he dress _for once _like everyone else's dads? She didn't see Katara's dad going around in full-on tribal gear (him being of Apache or Hopi or Lakota origin or something like that), and he was proud of his roots too. He just didn't walk around the house in heavy, awkward robes to prove it. And even that had been okay, until Lao had tried getting _Toph _into the stupid homeland gear. Yuk.

"Nice to see you, _Daddy,_" Toph gave a sickly-sweet smile, before stiffening her scowl back onto her face.

Lao narrowed his eyes at her - she didn't even sense it with her new Sight, only knew it by knowing his ways. "Toph," he began, his hands behind his back, his expression cool and calm and still, like a statue. Toph hated the way she couldn't read him. Maybe it was because of the echo of the cell. Then, he exhaled happily, as if he flipped a switch in his head; like he'd decided to play the happy father of the missing blind girl. "I'm so glad you're okay."

Toph arched a brow and slid down into a careful, tentative stance. She didn't think they were going to attack her, but still. "You know, I left for a reason," she pointed out bluntly, quite simply wanting to knock him out of his little façade, with some choice words.

Lao continued to smile a kind of Stepford smile - Toph wondered if her mother's personality had leaked into him in her absence. "I know, sweetheart," he tilted his brows as if he were about to cry or something - this time she knew it by her Sight. "You must have been so frustrated."

Frustrated? What the fuck was he talking about?

He continued, "I didn't know you were an earthbender. I didn't know how … how strong you were."

Toph felt something stir in her middle. He had found her weak spot. No. No, he couldn't' push that button. She didn't want to hear this - not from him. She took a step backward- not because she wanted to, of course. She just couldn't help it. Logic told her he was just saying things to weaken her, but her heart wanted to believe it; believe _him_.

Lao sighed and shook his head serenely. "You are so powerful, my daughter," he told her - and Toph was sure he was faking the lump in his throat - with a shaky breath, "The way you taught yourself to bend like your ancestors … I am so proud of you."

Toph clenched her jaw. '_Stop it. Stop talking,' _she seethed inside her head; _'Just stop talking! You're just trying to trick me! I won't fall for it!' _And she drew a deep breath through her nose, blew it out through her mouth and grumbled low in her belly. "How could you turn around and betray the world?" she snapped, brows coming down, "How could you work with the Dai Li?"

Lao smiled wanly. "Darling, I never betrayed anyone. I have always been a part of the Dai Li."

Toph didn't want to believe it … but she supposed it made sense.

"And you … I never thought you could be such an asset to the cause," he gave a tiny, amazed breath. He lowered himself to his knees - Toph wasn't very tall, and he was only about six inches shorter than her when he was down on his knees. She guessed it was so he could break down her walls - make her weak. Make it easy for him to turn her around.

But she wouldn't break. She'd never help the Dai Li. Yes, she had this power now, but she was blind. This _cause _had made her blind - made it harder for her to be strong - and she would never, never help the Dai Li; much less her traitorous father. "I'll never help you," she snapped quickly, brows down.

Lao swallowed, tilted his head. Glanced to the other agent. "Toph, you already have helped us," he said slowly.

Toph eyes wanted to bulge in her head, but she reeled herself in, unwilling to give them the upper hand. What was he talking about?

He sighed through his nose. "Do you remember when you were little, Toph? When we lived in Chicago?" he began patiently, "Do you remember why we moved to Dahlia Coast?" Lao smiled his Stepfordy smile and blinked his loving-daddy blink, and spoke in an angelic voice that made Toph want to think of white picket fences that morphed into prison bars in her mind. Toph didn't answer him, staring blindly in his direction. "We were in Chicago so I could organize some experiments the Dai Li were running underground."

Toph kept her cool on the outside. Inside she was screaming.

Lao Bei Fong continued in his oh-so-understanding tone, "When you were little, we took you to the lab in Chicago; to run some tests. To test the strength of your bending. Of course, you weren't activated. But we knew you were a bender - even when you were very small. You failed the tests, though. A lot of them because you were colorblind."

Toph didn't remember any of this. None of it made any sense. _'Shutupshutupshutup,' _her mind chanted.

"Long Feng relocated us to Dahlia Coast - to keep tabs on Cures USA. We suspected, even then, that Cures USA could stumble upon the genomes relevant to the bending arts."

That made some sense, at least. It meant that the Dai Li had been waiting for ten years, waiting for something. Toph turned her Sight toward the other agent for a moment - she could feel him drawing an annoyed, impatient breath. She could feel him tensing up - sweating. She could tell he didn't like her father, and she knew the feeling.

"But all of that was _my _objective. Your mother was never involved, not until recently; she was always aware of the Dai Li, and my affiliation with them. She never pledged her loyalty to Long Feng until they were the only people she assumed able to find you. And you - you were just a child.

"So imagine my amazement … my utter … my utter amazement," he paused breathlessly, "when you brought the Avatar right into my home."

Toph was confused. The Avatar. What the fuck was an Avatar? What, those blue people from that weird-ass movie? She didn't understand; she wanted things to make sense to her, but they didn't. She wanted to happen upon a conclusion, to be decisive and knowledgeable and _prepared. _But she wasn't. What were they talking about?

"Aang," Lao mouthed quietly. "The Tyson boy. He is what we have been waiting for all this time, my darling."

Toph would have stared, if she could see. She turned her gaze away from her father. Aang. Aang was the reason all of this was happening? Like she needed any more reason to hate him. And she did hate him; she hated him with every fiber of her being. But she still asked, in a tiny voice, "What do the Dai Li want with him?"

Lao smiled brightly - but it felt sinister to Toph's new sense of surrounding. "We want him to bring balance to Long Feng's new world. To regulate it."

To rule it for them.

Lao exhaled and reached out to stroke her hair, but she flinched away. "I'm so proud of you," he tried; he'd never told her this before, but it didn't matter.

Toph screwed up her face. "Get out," she whispered.

And they did. She had to get out of here. She went back to work on the door.

* * *

><p>Lydia paced back and forth in the laboratory. Of all the times for her mother to be out of order, why did it have to be when the fate of the world could well be resting on their family to come up with a deactivation serum? Her green eyes would flicker to the whiteboard at the front of the room, and then away, so she could mull it over. She was missing something; she knew it.<p>

And honestly, what was Katherine doing? Drinking. Her mother was sitting in the bar with Poquita pouring drink after drink, crooning love songs and proclaiming Richard's death to be Dominic's fault. Lydia ignored it for the most part. She cared little for things like that; she had a world to save, after all. But, she was still having trouble with this job.

Lydia ran her eyes over the board again and stopped to frown. She considered moving to change one of the elements on it, but then paused.

"Oh, for the love of god," Lydia groaned out, having spent hours pacing like this. "I'll never figure this out," she glanced to the chair by one of the tables, and then instantly fell into it.

Alistair, who was sitting on one of the laboratory counters, chuckled warmly. "You'll get it, darling. You always do."

Lydia melted into her seat and considered asking Alistair to rub her sore feet, but didn't. Instead, she answered his words with her own. "There's some kind of missing element in the genetic inheritance of the bending skills. With fire, earth and air, mother was able to trace the relevant genes back to certain animals with the same bending talents. But with water, there's no such animal. I suppose I could start looking for fish that can bend," she snorted irritably, "but their bending would probably be so subtle that we wouldn't be able to tell they were bending."

She grasped the bottle at her hip, thirsty. Lydia would have been lying to say she wasn't taking liberties with her bending. Her hand waved up through the air as she opened the cap with the other, and a sliver of water streamed out of the bottle. She brought it to her lips and slurped it up. Some rolled down her chin, but it was easily wiped away from the grin on her face.

Alistair gave a sigh. "Is there any way I can help?" he asked hopefully.

Lydia lolled her head back to smile ruefully at him. "Sorry. No, there isn't."

He gave a disappointed frown that Lydia didn't catch, as her eyes were already going back to the board. There had to be something she was missing. It was probably painfully obvious, possibly even jumping out at her, and she was just missing it because she was distracted. Alistair hopped off of the counter and strolled to a spot behind Lydia's chair. His soft-skinned hands slid onto her smooth, milky shoulders, and she gave a little breath of bliss at his touch.

"You're working like mad, sweetheart," Alistair stooped down until his breath hit her ear and she shivered. "Why don't you take a break?"

Lydia tilted her head away from him to allow him access to the tender point below her ear, and she felt a flutter of girlish excitement when his lips nuzzled against it. "I love you," she exhaled quickly, a soft chuckle escaping. She hated to say 'but', as she really would love to take a break and do other things with him, however she was extremely busy with her mother's work. "But I really can't take a break. Not now. I'm ridiculously close to getting it."

Alistair's ministrations stopped, and Lydia groaned inwardly. "Can't the world wait? What about me?" he asked breathily.

Lydia furrowed her brow, standing her ground and stiffening her features. "Alistair," she began, her voice imposing and powerful. "You told me yourself how important it is to fight the Dai Li. Now, I disagree with doing it with stupid rebellions and bloodshed, but I have to do this now," she shot him a look and got out of her seat, moving back to the board and grabbing up the whiteboard marker, moving to wipe the words from it with her bare forearm to start afresh. "I'm working."

Alistair's eyes burnt into her back and he pulled a face. He straightened his back and drew a breath. "Alright then. I can see you're busy," he replied stroppily. "I'll just go for a walk then," he decided aloud, moving to the door.

Lydia nodded, being too busy to catch the childishness in his voice. "Might as well take the corgi, if you are."

"Walk your own damned corgi." The lab door slammed behind him, and Lydia was snapped out of her concentration.

She blinked in his direction and tilted her head, curious. What was eating _him_? Maybe it was his bending; she was sure he had said he was a bender, though of what kind, she was unsure. She also knew that a lot of benders' emotions were being affected, like pheromones or something. Lydia turned back to the board and continued her work.

* * *

><p>Kelly pounded her fist on the Marina house door - the security at the gate had let her in, recognizing her SUV, but it sounded liked there was nobody in the actual house. She jammed her finger into the doorbell, for the umpteenth time, and resisted the urge to tap her foot impatiently. It was past curfew, dammit - she'd stuck her neck out here to help Katara and nearly gotten 'escorted' by the Dai Li, and now there was nobody here.<p>

She wasn't risking the trip back to the dusty old apartment empty-handed.

"Open up, Katara! Sokka! Someone!" Kelly clocked her knuckles into the door again - they were beginning to hurt from it - and furrowed her brow irritably.

Inside, Kelly heard the thundering of footsteps down the staircase, panicked or enthusiastic, or a mix of the two, and Kelly wondered if Katara had really missed her _that _badly. A pang of guilt shot through her - she really should have told Sokka and Katara she wouldn't be around for a while, but then they would have asked why, and she couldn't tell them their father had kissed her, now, could she?

The bolts on the other side clicked and shuffled undone - all house doors had had them fitted recently. People were scared. Kelly didn't blame them. The door suddenly swung open, and Kelly was surprised to see a straight-out-of-the-shower Hakoda holding it open as if expecting a barrage of injured rebels to fall into his house. His eyes fell on hers, and Kelly's eyes fell to where his white bathrobe was open, and there was subsequent open-mouthed gawping from both parties.

Kelly was the first to regain herself. "Uh, I …" she began, and then raised a hand to cough into it, "I came looking for Katara."

Hakoda blinked at her, and then shook it off. "She's … not here right now."

Kelly stared at him. "What?" she asked dully, incredulous. Not here? What the fuck? She'd driven here past curfew, through a heavily-patrolled Dai Li trap, luckily during the patrol changeover, with two boxes of old patient files on her passenger side seat, and Katara wasn't even here? "Are you serious?" she blurted out. What the hell was she doing, out of the house past curfew?

Hakoda smiled wanly; Kelly was perplexed by this, having assumed he would be awkward and nervous and generally anxious about her, but he remained composed. Kelly tried to convince herself the pinkness of his cheeks was from getting out of a steamy-hot shower to come and answer the door. Kelly briefly imagined it. Hakoda. Naked. In the shower. Mmm. She coughed into her hand again to calm herself.

"Her friend got taken by the Dai Li. She's been working non-stop to fight them, so she went to break Toph out."

Kelly groaned inwardly. "That girl has a knack for getting kidnapped, doesn't she?" she muttered into her palm. She remembered the whole palaver with the CIA, and it made her cringe, fingers moving up to her temple. Kelly looked up through her fingers and breathed a sigh. "Any idea when she'll be back?"

Hakoda rolled his eyes as though her question were rhetorical. "Come in - knowing the Dai Li, having a doctor around might be a good idea when they get back."

Kelly frowned again, uneasy, but ultimately sighed, resigned. "Alright, but help me bring in those boxes," she gestured back to her car, and the boxes on the passenger seat.

Hakoda's gaze shifted to the car, and then back to Kelly. "What's in 'em?" he asked conversationally, moving past her, toward the vehicle.

Kelly turned and gave a pensive breath, following him and unlocking the car with the press of a button on her keychain. "Just some things Katara wanted to see," she answered vaguely, trying to keep him away from what she was helping his daughter do. She wondered if he would be on the bandwagon with them - if he would want Katara not to do something so reckless, or if he would abide it. She wasn't sure what his standpoint on it would be, so she stayed silent on the matter.

* * *

><p>The Painted Lady had decided that she hated the woods. She didn't know if she had already hated them before this night, but she certainly hated them now. Like, in a 'want to set it on fire and watch while dancing' kind of way. And Katara didn't usually stoop to that level of hatred. Except for douchebags. And rapists. And forget about rapist douchebags.<p>

Okay, so she had a few things that bothered her. So what? Who didn't?

This was just plain creepy, anyway, she concluded, as she pressed her back to one of the trees bordering the clearing around the lake. There were shadows cast by flying animals and distant cries of wingless ones, and Katara got the feeling that if she looked over her shoulder, there would be someone standing there with a bloody, rusty knife held over their head …

'_Don't think about that! Just stay focused, Katara!' _she reinforced her bravery, hugging her arms around her middle and furrowing her brow. She fixed her eyes on the glistening surface of the foggy water, but it was dark now, too dark to see below its depths. The water looked black - like blood did when it was dark. Katara swore it looked like a huge pool of blood for a moment.

"Shit, shit, shit," Katara hissed between her teeth, eyes darting around warily. Of all the things she could be afraid of, why this? Why now? She'd seen far worse things than some shady-looking, ominous trees, right? She'd dealt with worse. _'Now man up!' _she barked inside her own head, but it did little to calm her.

A twig snapped, and Katara jumped away from the tree, hands smacking to her thighs and gripping her guns by the butts. Blue eyes darted around, and she stalked away from the tree, turning slowly to get a panoramic view of her surroundings. It could've just been some forest animal, but she wasn't taking chances. Her brunt arm was starting to feel better, but she still used the other to draw a gun, not wanting to take risks.

She wondered if she should ask into the darkness if anyone was there, of if she should stay quiet, as the aimed the gun around her in a circle, brows down behind her mask. Katara spotted something in her peripheral vision - she wasn't quite sure what it was - but it caused her to throw her attention toward it, turning on a dime and clacking back the hammer of her gun, clenching her jaw.

Fifteen seconds, and then thirty, passed. A minute went by and nothing attacked her. Katara thought this was a good sign, and slowly put her gun away.

Damn, she hated the woods.

* * *

><p>Aang ducked between shadows in his search. It had taken a five-minute descent into the earth to even get to a place that resembled the inner workings of a building, and even that was just a long, wide, curving hallway. Up ahead he could hear voices, shouting; Aang hoped things hadn't gone sour between Toph and the Dai Li - hoped she hadn't said the wrong thing and gotten herself killed.<p>

The shouting became louder; thumps and explosions of what sounded like earthen clumps against stonewall, and it was all Aang could do not to scream out her name. He heard metallic scrapes and whines - metal on stone, metal on metal - and he felt his stomach twisting inside him. _'Please be okay. Please be okay,' _he heard his mind chanting repetitively, desperate and severe. His heart hammered inside his head, and alongside the mantra of his will, they sounded like the opening of some dystopian techno song.

Aang worried. Toph hated it, but it was just how he handled things. He worried and he let problems fester in his mind until he came to a solution or fix for the situation. Sometimes it worked, other it didn't, and right now, he wasn't sure which was coming. He worried; about Toph's wellbeing, foremost. It had been the only thing in his mind for the longest time. There hadn't been five minutes in which he hadn't thought of her since the Dai Li takeover.

The idea of seeing her tore his heart apart from the inside out, grew a need in his chest that made him want to howl to the moon and fly to the sun, and never let her go. The idea of finding her dead … the idea that she might be hurt … and the idea that the aforementioned were extremely plausible … made him want to die.

Aang kept running, his bending forgotten, his lungs burning. Toph. Toph, Toph, Toph … dear spirits, all he wanted was for her to be okay.

The hall seemed like it would ever end - like he'd ever even find his way back to Katara - and he was ironically reminded of Snake Way (dork that he was). But there was nothing funny about this, nothing even remotely amusing. It was like a bad dream. There was shouting up ahead, and the distant glow of lights, but he seemed unable to reach them. He ran.

Then, in the midst of his hammering footsteps, the shouting stopped.

Aang wondered if that meant she had won, or if she had lost, or if there was only blood to be found up ahead. The shouting, the fighting, the thumps and bangs and clatters, all came to an abrupt stop, with one decisive thud against a hard metal surface. All went silent, and Aang became suddenly aware of how loud his feet were against the floor.

He blasted air at the ground, pushing himself up to hover in mid air, to quickly dissipate the sounds he was making - so he could listen. His eyes fixed on the glow of light up ahead - it broke, and a shadow cast across its middle. A figure was approaching, stumbling, attempting a jog or a run, but ultimately failing. Hunched.

Aang's feet made almost silent taps on the floor as he landed - the figure gasped and eyes turned up from the floor, wide. Blind green eyes stared at him, and brows came down hard. It was Toph. Without a doubt. She was a mess, her clothes filthy and her face smeared with red. Aang knew the blood on her face and clothes wasn't hers, but one hand was clamped between her ribs and her right bicep, and blood was soaking out from a wound - a gash - under her arm.

Aang opened his mouth to speak, but no words came - to his mind or his mouth.

Toph stepped backward, disbelieving. "Aang?" she blurted, without thinking, her surprise getting the better of her. She lifted the ball of her foot from the floor and tapped the floor with it. A vibration went out and she got a better 'look' at him. Yes. Yes, it was him. Of _course _it was him. His light step, his open stance, even in a place like this - only he could express such naïveté in his demeanor.

What was he doing here? Why had he come? Her mind was cluttered with shock, but she supposed she could conclude that Katara must have added him to the mix; probably on the idea that she and Aang were soulmates or some other fluttery bullshit, the sentimental bitch. But still, she could wait to throw her arms around said bitch and tell her how fucking stupid she was for coming here. Speaking of which, where _was _Katara?

Aang approached and threw his arms toward Toph, to hug her, she imagined. She quickly batted him away. "Why did you come here?" she snapped, images entering her mind - being blind never stopped her from getting a picture in her head - images of Dai Li agents cutting him down in his stupid attempt to come and rescue her. The warmth of seeping blood crept into her palm where she held her side. She didn't have time to waste talking with Aang.

She had searched fro a way out - even tried to bend one herself, but there was something above her, above this stronghold. It was heavy, and it wasn't earth; she had tried to bend it, and trying to do so had confused and dizzied her new sense of surrounding. Either that or she was just lightheaded from, you know, bleeding.

Whatever. Things would go downhill and fast if more Dai Li agents came for her now.

"I came to help," Aang said simply. No sorry, no 'I'm so glad you're okay', no 'I love you'. Good. Toph supposed she might have fucking punched him if he had said one of those little trinkets of verbal sentiment. His eyes fixated - sight, she remembered, was at his disposal - on the spread of red growing on her stained, dirty, Dahlia Coast Bullets t-shirt. "You're bleeding."

"No shit, Sherlock," Toph grabbed his wrist in a fist and tugged him away from the direction she'd come. "I don't have time to argue with you right now - we need to get out of here," she explained curtly, the pain of her injury leaking into her voice. God, why was he here? He couldn't be here! Not when the Dai Li wanted him - not when he was everything they wanted and needed for their endgame.

Aang nodded, and then took the lead, back the way he had been running from. "This way," he told her adamantly, Toph's hand still wrapped around his wrist.

They ran as fast as they could with Toph's wound holding them back, for a long while, through the monotonous, seemingly endless, corridor, until Aang saw and Toph sensed the stairwell up to the world above. "There it is," she puffed out, her breathing having become a series of graceless pants.

Unfortunately, this was the moment Toph's remaining strength failed her, and she stumbled forward on her feet. She clenched her hand on Aang's arm, grunting a curse.

Aang caught her by the elbow, his ears catching footsteps, running, toward them. His brows furrowed. "They're coming," he told her quickly, concern seeping into his words.

Toph grunted out, "Fuck," and grabbed hold of his arm to pull herself up. Her fingers threatened to curl into the gash in her side as she struggled to regain her balance. She supposed it would be nice to say _'alright, I've busted myself out this far, the rest is up to you' _but that really wasn't her style. As for speaking, well, she really didn't have much energy left, and she'd be damned if he spent it on words.

They had to get out of this fucking hellhole.

Aang yanked her up - she gasped out and clawed for him - before he swung low and his arm scooped under the backs of her knees, and around her back, lifting her legs out from under her and bringing her to a much more horizontal position. Toph wanted to smack him. "Hold on to me!" Aang yelled out, panic seeping into his voice.

_Note to freakin' self; bitchslap Aang as soon as we're not in mortal peril._

And, idiot that she was, Toph grabbed hold of his shirtfront. She couldn't sense her surroundings anymore, with her feet in the air, and somehow, she still felt safe. Dammit. Aang leapt up into the stairwell, kicking at the air with his feet, his hold on Toph almost harshly tight and unrelenting. He was careful not to hurt her, but she still felt a little claustrophobic. Plus she hated being carried, anyway. Except piggybacks. They were awesome.

'_Amazing what one thinks of when they face death, huh? Yep, all deep, pondery thoughts over here_,' Toph thought sarcastically, '_I'm a regular Aristotle'_.

When they reached the top of the stairwell, Aang paused. Toph could hear the footsteps of the Dai Li - she didn't need to sense them.

"Hold your breath," he instructed her hesitantly.

Realization washed over Toph and she grimaced. She had always hated water - and at this point, she had guessed what that heavy, unbendable substance overhead was - and she wasn't a strong swimmer, to boot. If he accidentally let go … or if she passed out … or if something went bad, she could drown. And drowning was her least favorite form of death.

So there was water over them. They were under the sea, or a pond, or some kind of lake. A lake would make the most sense. And she was sure she'd heard the Dai Li guards talking about a lake through the metal walls, but she hadn't put two and two together. She'd imagined them talking about some lake in China or whatever. _'Idiot' _she thought, scolding herself, _'Shoulda guessed that one'._

But she didn't really mind all that much. She'd been rather busy dealing with her traitorous father to notice something like 'oh, wow, I'm underwater, how about that?'. No point feeling bad about it now, right? Toph clenched her free hand - the one that wasn't plastered to her wound - on Aang's shirt, her fingernails scratching his skin through it, and tugged it so hard his head came down. "If you kill me, Twinkletoes," she ground out, "I will claw my way out of my grave and mutilate you with a rusty knife before letting you die a slow and grueling death. _Comprende?_" she hissed a low threat, craning her neck to get her words closer to his brain.

Aang stared at her for a moment - of this she was sure - and then nodded quickly and wordlessly.

Then they both sucked in long, preparatory lungfuls of air. Then the air around them was swirling - Toph was sure of this, too - dancing in a way that made it hard to breathe, and she held onto that deep breath in her chest. Blew it out slowly and carefully, not wanting to run out of air before they broke the water's surface. She was blind, but she couldn't stop herself from squeezing her eyes shut.

There was a crunch of earth, above her, and then water assaulted her from every angle. It was cold and slimy and she wanted to gasp in a new breath of air, but she was suddenly surrounded by water. It was all she could do not to panic. She hated the water - hated depending on Aang, of all people - and she wanted nothing more than to feel strong again.

As quickly as the water enveloped them, they broke the surface, and a new cold hit her soaking clothes and body. Her matted hair stuck to her face and she blew out what remained in her lungs to inhale deeply. Aang was holding on to her; Toph was almost grateful for it.

When Aang landed, Toph sensed it through his body, by the hand that she had moved from his shirt to his shoulder in her panic. She heard Katara's voice. Aang didn't put her down.

"Toph! You're hurt!"

And dizzy, too, she thought hazily. Consciousness escaped her, and she slipped into the darkness. She heard Aang's voice again, but she didn't hear his words. Maybe he was telling Katara they needed to get help. Maybe he was telling her to stay awake. She didn't hear it. She just liked the sound of his voice. She felt safe.

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><p><strong>AN: I know. Don't even get me started on how much I suck.**

**Enjoy this, since we don't have Korra today. I want to blame tumblr for my snail-pace in writing this chapter, but it's my own fault. In the end, what ultimately got me to finish this chapter is that I discovered James Patterson's Maximum Ride series and I just finished reading the first book (five days after I got it). It's pretty rad.**

**But yes. I suck so bad. I am actually going to get a Psych Eval, to see if there's a reason I'm so fucked up. I seriously hope my shrink doesn't just say 'yeah, it's 'cause uh … a lot of bad shit happens to you'. Because, really, some crazy shit happens to me. Also, you guys should check out the movie Harold And Maude - this guy is the original emo kid.**

"**Harold, what do you do for fun?"**

"**I go to funerals."**

**Oh, and a shout-out to ArianaD who figured out where Team Avatar is headed next!**

**Lyrics are from Esmee Denters' 'Get Me Out Of Here'.**


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